January 9, 2009 - 6:00am
News

Poll: Corzine leads Christie, but continues to struggle for voter approval

Gov. Jon Corzine has a 7-point lead over Republican Chris Christie in a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll. In the GOP primary, Christie, the former U.S. Attorney, has a 17-point lead over former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Gov. Jon Corzine leads Republican Christopher Christie by seven points, 40%-33%, and has a 45%-40% approval rating, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released this morning.   Christie, the former U.S. Attorney who announced yesterday that he would run for Governor, is unknown to more than half (56%) of the New Jerseyans polled.

In head-to-heads against other Republican candidates, Corzine leads former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan, 46%-28%, and Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) by a 43%-23% margin.  Lonegan is unknown to 71% of the state, while 89% don't recognize Merkt.  A fourth candidate, Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine, was not included in the survey.

In a Republican primary matchup, Christie leads Lonegan 32%-15%, with Merkt running third at 5%. 

Christie has a 50% name ID among Republicans, while Lonegan is at 44% and Merkt is at 14%.

Corzine has favorable of 42%-44%.  Christie is at 23%-6%, while Lonegan is at 9%-8% and Merkt is at 4%-3%.  Among Republicans, Christie's favorable are at 32%-2%, while Lonegan is at 18%-10% and Merkt is at 7%-2%.

Editor can be reached via email at editor@politicsnj.com.

Comments

Very Encouraging


5% of those who approve of the job Corzine is doing aren't voting for him! Christie, at this point and not surprisingly, is GOP's strongest candidate within the GOP and against Corzine. This is probably the strongest position any GOP candidate has ever started with and it means that if we republicans dedicate ourselves to do the work, we can get rid of Corzine. Given the press attention his announcement got (front page banner headline in Ledger!) expect this poll to generate lots of coverage today. My fear, of course, is that Mayor Lonegan's advisors will seize on this to push Steve, who I find to be an otherwise thoughtful man, to ramp up his negative attacks on Christie. Hopefully, Steve will have the good sense to recognize that a man who has 17% total ID within the GOP and only a 1-1 fav/unfav needs to boost his own fav's before he can try to credibly tear someone else down.

01/09/09 8:29 am

If Corzine wins..


Im considering moving to South Carolina. Nothing certain, but I'm not sure that I can deal with a state that rewards such blatant anti-growth and incompetent governance.

01/09/09 8:57 am

Thank you for your advice animal.


We're playing to win. Anyone who has a problem with that should not be in politics.

If Chris can't handle mixing it up, he's got no business running for Governor.

It seems the biggest concern from the Christie camp is to avoid any scrutiny of where Chris stands on anything. And with the same folks who ran the Giuliani "campaign" running the Christie "campaign" we're very confident that Chris will never make it to filing day in April.

Animal, you and your ilk have had their chance and failed again and again. Now it's time to put the 97 pound weaklings out to pasture and bring in someone who knows how to beat Democrats.

Time to get on the bus.

01/09/09 9:01 am

Lonegan


Lonegan attacking Christie will damage them both. If all Lonegan does is attack than he kills himself and the eventual GOP nominee. If Lonegan didnt look like such an ideologue he would do better. The fact remains this, the nation I would argue is centerist nation. Most Americans find fault in both parties and hope for compromise. Candidates that do not reflect that are usually going to do poorly in the general election. Secondly, NJ (unlike the united states) is by and large a center left state (its not Vermont, but its a far cry from Virginia). For a Republican candidate in NJ to be anti-choice, anti-gay rights, and a general champion of the far right is not going to do well in NJ. Furthermore, Lonegan true stripes were reveiled with his sensationalist stance against McDonald's Spanish billboard and his hiring of illegal immigrants. Again, the reason why I love to attack Lonegan (besides him making it easy) is that he deserves it. Lonegan is the worst kind of politician. Inauthentic, reactionary, senasationalist, he plays on the worst in people, and is purposfully devisive.

01/09/09 11:04 am

Mountaintop


You're an Idiot.................and the normal A_ _ Hole that lives and votes in New Jersey, you have been on the freedom bus so long you are now like the rest of those 60's losers. Too bad the bus is still running but I guess we will all have to wait "TILL YOU DIE" to get relief, but maybe not, as your time is coming just give Obamme time.

01/09/09 11:12 am

Max


I swear you must be a 19 year old junior college student, that lives with his parents. I see kids like you all over, chips on their shoulder, invicible in their own minds, know-it-alls. I hate to predict your future, and I hope I'm worng. But right now you probably work at a videogame store in a mall somewhere, and are inevitably going to look for that big promotion to selling cell phones.

01/09/09 11:27 am

sheesh


Once again, the NJGOP will give us another big government socialist, to run against the bigger government socialist.

They learned nothing from the November 08 routing they took, as we are already seeing the makings of a repeat.

With NJ towns scrambling into court to try and rescue themselves from the financial tsunami called COAH, the residents of NJ are just starting to figure out that Trenton will not stop until every resident is living in government owned housing, and private property rights are only mentioned in history books.

With Abbott district spending 25k per student installing Hi-Def TV's for offices to keep the administrators and their lackeys awake during working hours, only Lonegan will tell the truth about the crappy education these kids are getting, and at what a horrendous cost to all taxpayers.

The socialist are of course trolling the boards hard, using terms like "divisive" "lunatic fringe" "gadfly" and "tard" to describe any real conservative that surfaces, and one that the GOP machine can't control.

Lonegan's message is a simple one, and it's the message on the lips of every NJ taxpayer, all he has to do is get it out there. The only candidate in the race that spends time in court as a private citizen, trying to stop the open ended Trenton credit card spending, that eventually will bankrupt us all.

Go Steve. The grasroots GOP members hear you loud and clear, the NJGOP machine is going to have a hard time making everyone goosestep to the RINO tune this time.

01/09/09 11:30 am

Looneyganism


"Now it's time to put the 97 pound weaklings out to pasture and bring in someone who knows how to beat Democrats."

Looneygan can't even beat other Republicans. He lost four years ago to a nebbish like Forrester, and I recall he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the GOP primary in 1998 with Murray Sabrin's endorsement and statewide financial support from Murray's looneytarian pals.

01/09/09 5:06 pm

Four years ago, Steve Lonegan was a tropical depression.


Seth Grossman, www.libertyandprosperity.org

This year, Lonegan is a Category 5. During the past 13 years, Lonegan was elected 3 times in a Democrat town.   He kept spending below inflation.  Lonegan sued twice to stop unconstitutional borrowing by the state without public votes.  He  only lost 4-3 in the Supreme Court because the case was delayed more than a year until after Justice Stein reached retirement age. Lonegan stood almost alone to fight and beat the $450 million stem cell, and $200 million open space bond ballot questions. (Corzine admitted that he was stunned by the defeat of the stem cell ballot question and proposed a constitutional amendment because of it.) Lonegan mobilized the forces that blocked Corzine's toll road monetization scheme. Yes, Lonegan at times got tired and careless, and made some mistakes.   But unlike others, Lonegan learned from them and grew. I think learning and rebuilding after those mistakes made Lonegan a much tougher, more careful, and more effective leader. It is ironic that those who want folks like me to respect and support Republican 'leaders' who rammed John McCain, Doug Forrester, Dick Zimmer, the Goya Foods guy, etc. down our throats are the first to insult and show no respect for  Lonegan and those of us who support him. But that is OK. It just makes us angrier and more determined to make the sacrifices needed to win.

01/09/09 10:24 pm

Yes


Lonegan was so careless and tired he needed to hire illegal aliens to assemble his yard signs. I have yet to find anyone defend Lonegan on these actions

01/10/09 1:39 pm

No matter who wins in June, I will support


Honestly, I want to see only fiscal issues on the table. Any candidate that attacks another on social issues at this time should burn in hell.

01/10/09 3:46 pm

Issues


  That seems kind of narrow to say. Of course the fiscal policies of a candidate are extremely important, but many social issues do impact our economy.

Some people might be tired of having the state pay for needles for drug users, some hunters who spend hundreds of dollars in fees might want an oppurtunity to hunt bears again in NJ, and finally many right to life people in  NJ want their say as well.

Ronald Reagan won NJ twice and he was socially conservative on many issues.

 The GOP has to have a big tent or they will lose. The problem is for too long the leaders have not led and the dems have worked together even when they don't always agree with each other.

01/10/09 11:50 pm

PC517


"The GOP has to have a big tent or they will lose" 

Oh please give me a break. 

They have been losing with that tent you Mental Midget. 

It is time to close that tent down and send them back to the rest of the low-life’s in the DemoCrook party where they came from, including the loggers or whatever they call themselves, we don't need or want them, they can have the Immoral, Sadistic Cruds called Democrats.

01/11/09 12:08 am

bitaryo the prophet


Honestly, I want to see only fiscal issues on the table. Any candidate that attacks another on social issues at this time should burn in hell.

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