Cryan talks up QPac poll, hits Christie on managerial skills

Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan says that the Quinnipiac poll released this morning showing Governor Corzine and Republican Chris Christie in a statistical dead heat reinforces what his party has been hearing.

“It says what we know: it’s a close election and we’re on the move.  It also says what else we know, which is that folks were introduced to Chris Christie and said no thanks,” said Cryan (D-Union), who is also an assemblyman.

The poll indicates, however, that the 14% independent Christopher Daggett gets is soft support.  And of those who picked Daggett, 40% picked Christie as their second choice, while 33% chose Corzine.  

Cryan, however, is not afraid that the Daggett voters will swing to Christie on election day.

“Folks who are engaged with Daggett are looking at him at a different level than they are with Christie. I don’t think that someone’s going to walk in on Election Day and say ‘oh no, let me vote for Christie,’” he said.

While declining to comment on the Corzine administration memo that shows his office pushing cabinet members to plan events demonstrating good news for the governor because “it’s a front office thing,” Cryan did jump on stories about Christie overspending on hotel rooms while on business trips as U.S. Attorney.

“I think it completely eliminates his credibility in talking about any sort of waste, fraud and abuse that he’s going to eliminate as governor, and frankly it leads to real questions on the guy’s ability to manage anything,” he said.  “This isn’t a couple hundred bucks on one trip… Look at what his overall managerial skills are. He’s out there taking trips, handing loans to a subordinate, not paying taxes, not filing his disclosures.”