The race for the 14th legislative district has taken shape, with Former State Sen. Peter Inverso topping the Republican side of the ticket, along with Steven Cook and Ronald Haas.

He held the 14th district seat for 16 years from 1992 to 2008 before deciding not to run again in 2007. Inverso will face Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) this fall, in another high-stakes match up in the swing district. Greenstein won the seat from Tom Goodwin, former Hamilton councilman, in 2009 and defended it from Richard Kanka’s challenge in 2011.

“The principal concerns of the people in the 14th district mirror those of our entire state,   and they are their growing tax burden, jobs and the economy. The 14th district needs a legislator who can work in unison with the governor to advance those programs and reforms which will help remedy these concerns,” Inverso said in the release.

The county republican party has courted the former senator for some time before the announcement, nominating him last month for the seat. In talking about the potential run to The Times of Trenton last week, he characterized himself as the underdog.

Inverso, a Hamilton resident, served as president and CEO of Roma Bank, which last year announced a sale to Investors Bank. As part of the restructuring from that sale, the bank also said it would back out of plans for a building in Robbinsville that would have housed its municipal offices.

Cook, executive director of The Arc of Mercer and former chief of staff for Inverso, also announced in a press release he would run along with former pharmaceutical executive Ronald Haas. They will face Assemblymen Dan Benson (D-Hamilton) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton).

The 14th district covers nine municipalities outside Trenton including Hamilton, Robbinsville, and Plainsboro.