Quinnipiac: Christie 47%, Corzine 37%, Daggett 9%

A new Quinnipiac poll shows Gov. Jon Corzine trailing Republican Christopher Christie by ten percentage points, 47%-37%, among likely voters, with independent Christopher Daggett running third with 9%.

An August 11 Quinnipiac poll had Christie leading 46%-40%, with Daggett at 7%. 

Corzine has upside-down approvals of 34%-60%, and has upside-down favorable of 34%-57%.  Christie has favorable of 41%-30%, while 87% of likely voters don't know much about Daggett.

 "Christie wins on many questions and he is pulling away from Corzine in a three-way matchup, with a double-digit lead," said Maurice Carroll, the poll director.  "Daggett's candidacy is just chipping away at the edges as he fails to climb out of single digits."

Nearly one-quarter of Democrats (26%) are not voting for the governor.  Christie is getting 15% of the Democratic vote, while 7% is going for Daggett.   Among independents, Christie leads Corzine 46%-30%, with Daggett getting 16%.  Christie gets 86% of the Republican vote, with 8% for Corzine and 4% for Daggett.

Of the 77% of likely voters who have seen one of Corzine's ads about Christie giving federal monitor contracts to Bush administration officials, 56% say the attacks are unfair and 36% view it as legitimate campaign issue. By a 59%-34%, independent voter say the issue is unfair.

Nearly half of voters (49%) who are familiar with charges, claims or attacks in the race for governor consider Corzine's attacks on Christie for giving a $46,000 personal loan to former federal prosecutor Michele Brown as unfair, while 43% call it fair.

Voters are split 45%-47% on whether it's fair to criticize Corzine for his personal relationship with former CWA President Carla Katz, and on Christie's ads criticizing Corzine for failing to guard against economic collapse.

"Just about everyone has seen Gov. Jon Corzine's TV ads knocking Christopher Christie's ties to the Bush team,  but most question whether it's a legitimate issue.  ‘Unfair,' they say," said Carroll.  "The Democratic attacks about Christie's loan to his former co-worker score a little higher.  Christie gets a split on his ads criticizing Corzine for failing to protect New Jersey against the economic downturn."

Carrol says that New Jersey voters are "hardened to in-your-face politics" and that by a 63%-31% margin, they view the charges being made by both major party candidates as "standard stuff."

"Governor Corzine has gotten used to throwing his Wall Street millions behind baseless and slanderous attack ads.  This year with the highest property taxes in the country, 9.3% unemployment and 200,000 lost jobs last year alone, the people of New Jersey are saying enough is enough," said Bill Stepien, Christie's campaign manager.  "Chris is leading this race because he offers solutions to struggling New Jerseyans while Jon Corzine has tried to mask his miserable record with even more of his angry, partisan rhetoric."
 
"The stakes are too high when hard working families can barely make ends meet and Jon Corzine's campaign has belittled and insulted the challenges so many in our state are facing.  Today's polls make clear that voters want change and they're going to start by changing governors," Stepien said.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,612 New Jersey likely voters between August 25-30.  The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.4%.