South Jersey poll has governor's race too close to call

A poll of five South Jersey legislative districts shows Republican Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine 34%-31%, numbers that are within the margin of error, and independent Christopher Daggett is at 18%.  The poll, conducted by Zogby International for Richard Stockton College’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, surveyed 801 likely voters in district 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9.  That region includes all of Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, part of Gloucester and southern Ocean counties, and Bass River in Burlington County.

In 2005, Corzine carried this region by a 52%-48% margin over Republican Douglas Forrester.

“The question statewide is from whom Daggett is pulling votes?” said Sharon Schulman, the Executive Director of the Hughes Center.  “Most of the shift came over from the undecided voters, which dropped from 22% last month to 13% this month.”

The survey gives Christie 73% of the Republicans and Corzine gets 59% of Democrats.  Among independents, Daggett goes from 7% to 13%.

The poll also shows a close race for State Assembly in District 1, where Republican John McCann (49%) leads.  For the second seat, Democratic incumbent Nelson Albano (44.1%) and Republican Michael Donohue (43.5%) are tied.  Democratic incumbent Matthew Milam is running fourth with 30%.

A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll conducted for James Carville and Stanley Greenberg's Democracy Corps has Corzine leading statewide 42%-39%, with 13% for Daggett, a statistical dead heat.