As the battle for New Jersey governor continues to heat up, a new survey conducted for Stan Greenberg and James Carville’s organization Democracy Corps by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research finds that that race is now a dead heat with Republican Chris Christie at 40 percent, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine at 39 percent and independent Chris Daggett receiving 11 percent of the vote. Corzine had slowly but steadily narrowed the race since our first poll in early August, moving from a 5-point deficit to the current 1-point margin.
Meanwhile, for the first time, more New Jersey voters now rate Christie unfavorably than rate him favorably, 34 percent unfavorable to 32 percent favorable. Corzine continues to benefit from the Democratic partisan advantage the Garden State. Democratic candidates for the state legislature hold a 41 to 37 percent lead on the generic ballot and the Democratic Party remains much more popular (42 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable) than the Republican Party (31 percent favorable, 40 percent unfavorable).
President Barack Obama also remains very popular in the state with 57 percent rating him favorably and just 28 percent rating him unfavorably.
These results are based on a Democracy Corps survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner from September 22-23, 2009 among 601 likely voters in New Jersey. The margin of error is +/- 4.0 percent. You can find this release as well as the full survey results at https://www.democracycorps.com/.
Democracy Corps is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to making the government of the United States more responsive to the American people. It was founded in 1999 by James Carville and Stanley Greenberg. Democracy Corps provides free public opinion research and strategic advice to those dedicated to a more responsive Congress and Presidency.
