BY MICHAEL HAYNE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Chris Christie may be the darling of the GOP and ridiculously courted by them to jump into a field of seemingly weak (and insane) Republican presidential candidates and wannabees, but his appeal in NJ is starting to drop faster than Jersey Shore's Snooki after an all-night drinking binge.

A recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll concluded that opinions of the gargantuan governor have "gotten worse" since he's assumed office. 38 percent said their opinion of the governor has slipped since he took office in January 2009 while 28 percent said their opinion got better. It's widely known that women like Christie about as much as getting their period, but what stood out was the sheer number of younger people, not famed for being political astute, who disapprove of the Governor.

About half of those polled who are younger than 30 had a worse opinion of the governor while the same response was given by 42 percent of those between 30 and 49 years of age and only 29 percent of those over 65.

Christie's brash approach to education appeared to be what irritated voters the most, the poll found. Of those polled, 83 percent said that education policy was the reason for their change, with 63 percent of those having indicated their opinion of the governor was declining. Not surprisingly, members of a household with a public employee were more likely to have a worse opinion of the governor now since when he took office. After all, Christie has made it his opus to take a chainsaw to public school teachers while coddling his millionaire campaign backers.

Pollster and Rutgers Political Science professor, David Redlawsk, feels that “while asking about an election two years away doesn’t really tell us what will happen in 2013, it does give us a read on what voters are thinking.” Again, the opinion of young voters weighed prominently in the poll, according to Redlawsk.

Christie's name calling, shout fests, and genuine lack of empathy for anyone who doesn't work on Wall Street may resonate with the GOP and voters from other states who don't know the real Christie, but the voters of New Jersey aren't buying it.

Maybe Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski should reconsider his former recall aspirations.

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