Christopher Daggett

If support for independent candidate Christopher Daggett is soft, as indicated by this morning's Quinnipiac University poll, then the race for second choice among those who say they are likely to vote for Daggett remains important.  Republican Christopher Christie leads Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine 40%-33% among Daggett supporters who list a second choice.  Nearly six out of ten Daggett (39%) voters say they might change their mind before Election Day.

Former independent gubernatorial candidate Christopher Daggett wants state to investigate robocalls that he says “severely damaged” his candidacy, The Star-Ledger reports.  

The call, in which a woman’s voice attacks Republican Chris Christie for being “wrong where it matters most,” urges listeners to “remember Chris Daggett's words: 'It's never wrong to vote for the right person.’”  

The  call ends with a disclaimer that says it was paid for by the NJDSC and gives The Democratic State Committee’s Trenton address.  The day before the election, a spokesperson for the DSC confirmed that the group paid for the robocalls, but the group did not comment further on it. 

Everybody needs to start a new job with a list of priorities and Chris Christie is no exception. There might be a thousand things that need to get done but a limited number that can be achieved. He needs to get up every morning, read the list, and raise hell until the list is complete. When it's done, write a new list.

Here's a start:

The Star-Ledger's editorial page becomes a little less intimidating to politicians after their candidate for governor, independent Christopher Daggett, won just 6% of the vote statewide.  The state's largest newspaper gave Daggett an early endorsement - so early that they unwittingly cost themselves the sponsorship of the gubernatorial debate.  This may be the single worst performance of any candidate to win the Star-Ledger endorsement during the newspaper's 177-year history.  This puts a burden on editorial page editor-elect Tom Moran as he prepares to take over.

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Independent Christopher Daggett – whose poll numbers have dropped a bit from the peak a couple weeks ago – does not want to even entertain the talk of not winning tonight until the votes are counted.

“I don’t know what people are thinking out there. I can tell you this: there are an awful lot of undecided people out there.  Even at 3:00 in the afternoon, people who have not voted yet are at work struggling between what they really want to do and they know is the right thing to do, but have been led to believe they should use their vote against something rather than for something,” he said.

Daggett started the morning in Metro Park in Edison, went home to Basking Ridge to vote, did an interview on MSNBC and campaigned during the lunch hour in Fort Lee.  His campaign will gather later tonight back at the Dolce Basking Ridge Hotel.  

“I would say the really encouraging thing for me in this campaign… is the number of people who told me they weren’t going to vote at all until I got into the race, and they are going to vote now because I’m in it,” he said.

A WABC-TV/SurveyUSA poll shows Republican Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine by three percentage points, 45%-42%, with independent Christopher Daggett at 10%. 

Given the dates the poll was conducted, SurveyUSA said the results should be “interpreted cautiously.”

“On 2 of the 3 nights, much of NJ was home watching local teams play in the World Series. And: 1 of the 3 nights was Halloween, when families with children are home in uniquely large numbers. As such, results of this survey should be interpreted cautiously: a narrow Corzine victory is not inconsistent with the data, but a narrow Christie win is more consistent with the data,” wrote the pollster.

The poll of 528 likely voters was conducted October 30-November 1 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.1%.

A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll of 606 likely voters conducted for Democratic strategist James Carville's Democracy Corps shows Cozine leading Christie 41% to 37%, with independent Christopher Daggett getting 15%.  

Bad news so far today for independent gubernatorial candidate Christopher Daggett: two new polls today having him just barely above the double digit mark as he rapidly hemorrhages 24 hours before voting begins.  The Quinnipiac poll has his favorables at 23%-17% -- nearly six out of ten New Jerseyans likely to vote on Tuesday (57%) still don't know who he is.  He's out of money, and has no party structure to turn out votes on Election Day. 

A new Quinnipiac University poll has Republican Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine by two percentage points, 42%-40%, with 12% for independent Christopher Daggett.  Six percent remain undecided in a gubernatorial race that is just narrowly within the margin of error.

Four days ago, Corzine led 43%-38%, was 13% for Daggett.

Nearly four out of ten (38%) of Daggett supporters say they might change their mind: 39% list Corzine as their second choice, and 29% would go for Christie. 

"Daggett is the key to an incredibly close New Jersey election," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Christie leads 47%-32% among independents, with 17% for Daggett.

Republican Christopher Christie has a six point lead over Gov. Jon Corzine, 47%-41%, with independent Christopher Daggett at 11%, according to a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey.  PPP is a North Carolina-based Democratic polling firm.

Christie's lead had increased four points last week and one point three weeks ago.  He has a 52%-29% lead among independents.

Corzine's favorables remain upside-down: 34%-57%.  Christie is at 43%-42%. 

"For most of the last three months the election had moved more and more in Jon Corzine's direction but it appears that his momentum stopped about three weeks ago," said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. "As Chris Daggett's support started to decline Christie's went back up."