TRENTON – Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-6) held crash press conference outside the chamber as time ticked down on the nerve-wracking day.

“If you want to get a deal done you have to have a conversation,” said Greenwald, a political rival of Prieto’s who abstained on the budget for which the speaker sought support.

“We sat here for hours on end today looking at a board that did not move,” Greenwald told NJTV Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron. “You have to work together.

“It will take as many days as it takes,” he added, when Aron asked him when a deal will be had on the budget. “We’ll come back tomorrow. If we don’t get it done tomorrow we’ll come back the next day.”