Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver will take her first turn as acting governor this weekend, while Gov. Phil Murphy is in Washington, D.C. Murphy’s public schedule has him out of state on Saturday and Sunday.
Oliver never got to be acting governor, one of the few Assembly Speakers in state history to never get that chance. She became speaker in 2010, following the election of the state’s first lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno. They dropped the speaker in the line of succession. Senate President Steve Sweeney got a few days in that post, during a snowstorm during Chris Christie’s first term. Christie was criticized for not coordinating vacation schedules with Guadagno. Guadagno was no longer permitted to leave the state without permission of the governor.