[caption id="attachment_459" align="alignnone" width="784"] Wisniewski makes his case.[/caption]

WAYNE - The late Frank Lautenberg once told Wayne DeAngelo that he remembered the assemblyman's name because Lautenberg had lived in Wayne, and while Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-19) doesn't live here, he came here today to present himself as a viable 2017 Democratic candidate for governor.

Standing in front of a mostly Bernie Sanders-type crowd of over 100 people (the campaign told InsiderNJ they had expected about 20), Wisniewski hit on school funding, property tax relief, and student debt.

"We need leaders who will challenge the established thinking," said Wisniewski, who last week won the endorsement of the Princeton Democratic Club. "New Jersey needs a new direction. This campaign is your campaign to change the direction of New Jersey and the nation. Every single day we're going to be holding events like this and talking to people."

The man who unpacked Bridgegate packaged himself as a fierce progressive. On health care, the long-shot candidate running against former Goldman Sachs executive Phil Murphy said he wants New Jersey to have a single-payer medical system. He slapped President Donald J. Trump for waffling on Obamacare and saying different things (repair, replace, keep, etc).  Wisniewski wants New Jersey to have its own system, and said he is drafting a bill for a NJ single-payer system.

He lingered on Murphy to mix in some jabs.

Post Princeton, the front-runner's campaign zapped Wisniewski with a mailer branding him pro-gun.