TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Two public opinion polls show that allegations of political payback involving Gov. Chris Christie’s aides are taking a toll on his popularity and could hurt his national political ambitions.
A Rutgers-Eagleton survey taken in New Jersey shows Christie’s job performance and approval ratings slipping since his re-election in November.
The poll shows a 19-point dip in Christie’s favorability rating, fueled largely by a 26-point drop among Democrats. The Republican’s job performance rating is down 15 points from November.
Poll director David Redlawsk says the sharp decline follows two years of strong bipartisan support. Christie won re-election by 22 percentage points in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans.
A national Quinnipiac University poll found about one-third of the respondents less likely to vote for Christie for president since learning that his staff may have created traffic jams in a town as apparent political payback to a Democratic mayor.
The poll found the biggest shift among independent voters, who preferred Christie to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 47-32 percent in a survey last month but score the two virtually even now.
Christie and Clinton have been seen as early front-runners in a race that is hypothetical and still more than two years off.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll surveyed 757 registered voters via landlines and cellphones from Jan. 14 to 19. It has an error margin of up to 3.6 percentage points.
The Quinnipiac survey has an error margin of up to 3.5 percentage points. It surveyed 1,933 registered voters nationwide, also via landlines and cellphones, from Jan. 15 to 19.
The surveys were mostly taken before new allegations surfaced that Christie’s administration threatened to withhold a city’s Superstorm Sandy recovery aid unless the mayor signed off on a politically connected building project.
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Online:
Rutgers-Eagleton poll: https://eagletonpollblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/new-polling-on-christie-ratings/
Quinnipiac poll: https://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=1998
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