Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski today joined the chorus of legislators backing Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver for another term as speaker of the lower chamber.

Wisniewski joins a conglomeration of legislators from Essex County, Hudson County, Passaic County and South Jersey in supporting Oliver for a second two year term.  While the situation is not written in stone, Wisniewski's support further solidifies the agreement to provide Oliver the votes needed to remain in the speaker's post.

"I support this arrangement and I think it's important that we proceed so that we are not distracted as we head into the final days of the legislative elections," Wisniewski said.  "As state chair it has always been my hope that we would discuss this after the election but sometimes we don’t get to choose and the circumstances came about that we had to discuss this now. Now that it's been discussed I'm glad we can spend the rest of the time focusing on the legislative elections that are so important to the state." 

The agreement also puts Assemblyman Lou Greenwald in the Majority Leader's role, while Hudson County Assemblyman Vincent Prieto will assume the chairmanship of the budget committee.

The deal struck between factions in seven counties would leave current Majority Leader Joe Cryan without a leadership position. Cryan had been maneuvering in recent weeks for his own shot at the speaker's chair, but early today the pieces began to fall into place for Oliver. Key to the agreement was support of five Hudson County lawmakers, who signed on to the deal yesterday.

Essex County had already committed at least five votes to Oliver along with as many as 11 from South Jersey.  After the Hudson legislators signed on, Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie pledged the support of at least two lawmakers from that county.