My understanding is that deer are required for long-distance transport of black legged tick populations, but are not absolutely required to complete the full two-year life cycle.
Nope. "Even though adult ticks can feed on other mammals such as dogs, cats and raccoons, the female adult tick requires a blood meal from the deer before she can lay her 2,000 to 6,000 eggs." http://www.deeralliance.com/node/10
As an aside, I grew up in rural New Jersey (yes, such a place exists), and as long as I can remember we've always called these "black legged" ticks "deer" ticks.
Edit: as opposed to "wood" ticks (quite visibly distinctive http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/rocky_mount... - in spite of their name, quite common in the woody regions of NJ), which don't carry Lyme disease. In my experience, this type of tick was much more common than the "deer" or "black legged" tick in NJ.
