Raymond J. "Ray" Lesniak (born May 7, 1946) is an American Democratic Party politician, who served in the New Jersey State Senate from 1983 to 2018, where he represented the 20th Legislative District. Before entering New Jersey's upper house, the Senate, Lesniak served in the General Assembly from 1978 to 1983. Lesniak was once considered a major power broker in the Democratic Party, having served as New Jersey Democratic State Chairman and New Jersey Chair for Clinton/Gore and Gore/Lieberman. Lesniak finished a distant fourth place as a candidate for Governor of New Jersey in the 2017 election. Personal life Lesniak grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1969, then earned his A.B. in economics from Rutgers University in 1971, and his J.D. from St. John's University School of Law in 1974. He is an attorney with the firm Weiner Lesniak. Lesniak is ethnically Polish. In 2018, Lesniak married Salena Carroll, his girlfriend of 20 years, just a year before she died of unknown causes. He has a niece, Suzanne Devanney, and three nephews, George Devanney Jr., Daniel Devanney, and Christopher Devanney. Political career In 1980, Lesniak ran for the office of Mayor of Elizabeth. He was defeated by incumbent mayor Thomas G. Dunn, whom he challenged in the Democratic primary election. Dunn scored about 7,100 votes to Lesniak's 6,600 while about 2,000 went to David Conti, the challenger who came 276 votes away from toppling Dunn in 1976 and was (in 1980) endorsed by the Regular Democratic Organization of Union County. Subsequently, Dunn orchestrated Lesniak's removal from the 'party line' -- a preferred ballot position aligned with almost all other incumbents—when it was time for the lawmaker to seek re-election to the General Assembly in 1981. Party leaders did not inform Lesniak about his loss of support until two days before the petition filing deadline. Elizabeth Health Director John Surmay was selected to replace Lesniak on the ballot between Sen. John T. Gregorio and Assemblyman Thomas J. Deverin, his prior running mates. Building on the organization assembled during his race for mayor, the Elizabeth Democratic Association, Lesniak waged a campaign with support from organized labor, environmentalists, minority communities, and others. On June 6, 1981, Lesniak won renomination with approximately 20% more than the number of votes cast for Deverin and almost twice as many ballots as Dunn's proxy, Surmay. In a June