TRENTON -- New Jersey Democrats seeking to succeed Gov. Chris Christie are already fighting over which one will "feel the Bern" next year.

Just a day after Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) formally declared his candidacy for governor in 2017, former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he "may very well" support the longtime lawmaker, who served as the Vermont senator's New Jersey campaign chair was the only state lawmaker to endorse him.

"I know John a little bit and I've had the opportunity to meet John," Sanders said at a Washington breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "I do very much appreciate the efforts that John has made in New Jersey."

Sanders said "there's a call that's going to be made to John," before he endorses a candidate.

A Sanders endorsement of Wisniewski could make a big splash in New Jersey's Democratic primary, where Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany, has gained the lion's share of support from party leaders, said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University.

Harrison noted the New Jersey race will already get national attention next year because it's one of only two governor's races (Virginia is the other) and there are no federal offices up.

"There are two gubernatorial elections next year," she said. "You have a Democratic constituency that's fired up and getting angrier by the day. It seems to me that if there's a Bernie Sanders endorsed candidate just seven months after the defeat of Hillary Clinton, it becomes a national campaign."

"It attracts national attention and attracts national money and the relatively easy walk to the nomination that Phil Murphy had planned becomes a lot trickier."

Wisniewski on Thursday also announced the hire of Robert Becker, who ran Sanders' presidential campaign in Iowa, as his 2017 campaign manager.

Becker's hire, a Wisniewski campaign email promised, "will help guide our campaign as we take on the powerful special interests, Wall Street banks and transactional politics of Trenton to stand up for working people," echoing Sanders' own populist message.

Becker took Sanders from a 38-point deficit in Iowa late last year to within a cat's breath of victory against Hillary Clinton in the first presidential contest in January. Clinton won by the narrowest margin in the history of the Iowa Democratic caucus.

On the doorstep of the Democratic National Convention this past July, Wikileaks published thousands of emails among Democratic officials that appeared to reveal a concerted effort to favor Clinton, which some said put a "thumb on the scale" for the former secretary of state. It led to the resignation of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

On Thursday, Wisniewski suggested that a similar effort might be underway among New Jersey's Democratic Party leaders after 11 county chairs endorsed Murphy last month, before any other Democratic candidates had declared.

"I am not sure what appendage is on the scale, but there's something on the scale that's very similar," Wisniewski told NJ Advance Media. "We've seen a process where party leaders think they know best, which really undermines the whole convention process. I just believe rank-and-file Democrats should get to choose their nominee."

Talk of a possible Sanders endorsement of Wisniewski did not sit well with the campaign of Murphy, who was an early backer of Clinton but will also be seeking Sanders' support.

"I doubt that endorsing a 20-year incumbent who embodies pay to play politics by feeding at the trough and earning millions in taxpayer contracts in exchange for campaign contributions is in keeping with Senator Sanders' pledge to clean up special interest politics," Murphy spokesman Derek Roseman said.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.