Polling released today offer some interesting numbers regarding the Christie administration. Widely viewed as a popular governor and a potential presidential candidate, it remains unclear whether Chris Christie can even win a second term.
As a Rutgers-Eagleton poll points out today:
Nearly two-thirds of New Jersey voters are skeptical of Gov. Chris Christie’s claim that the “Jersey Comeback has begun” — even though a plurality feels the state is heading in the right direction, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released today
And voters are split on whether the governor deserves a second term.
Poll respondents say the state is heading in the right direction (48-41 percent) and Christie’s approval ratings remain high (49-40). But,
When asked if Christie deserves a second term, 47 percent said they’re ready to re-elect him and 46 percent said it’s time for someone new.
This is not exactly good news for the governor. After all, he will be running in a blue state — the state has gone for Democrats at the presidential level five straight times and is likely to do so this year — and it has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 40 years. Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and represent a majority of the state’s Congressional delegation.
Christie won election in 2009 with 49 percent of the vote, running against one of the most unpopular incumbents in recent history. Jon Corzine’s approval numbers were mired in the mid-30s throughout his re-election campaign, and he still managed to pull in 44 percent of the vote.
None of this proves anything, of course, but it does place today’s poll results in context while demonstrating the terrain in which Christie will be running.
I suspect that Christie is in the same position that Christie Whitman was in when she sought re-election in 1997. She had won a narrow victory over a wildly unpopular governor, was more popular with her national party than with voters in New Jersey and her party was losing much of the ground it had gained in 1990 and 1991. She won, narrowly, over a still relatively unknown Jim McGreevey and then left for Washington before her term was up.
The outcome this time, therefore, could be determined by Christie’s opponent, as much as it is by Christie’s own popularity and job performance. Stay tuned.
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