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FDU poll results made public as governor makes State of State address Tuesday
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
As Gov. Chris Christie makes his second State of the State address Tuesday, the percentage of New Jerseyans who approve of the way he is handling his job as governor is slowly approving month by month.
And taking a family vacation to Disney World in Florida while New Jersey disappeared under the post-Christmas blizzard, has apparently not hurt Christie's popularity with the people who already like him.
A new Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll made public Tuesday finds 53 percent approve of Christie while another 36 percent disapprove. The governor's current approval is marginally better than his 49 percent to 39 percent rating taken after the November election and similar to his 51 percent to 37 percent approval rating in October.
"Voters are focused on finances, theirs and the state's." Peter Woolley, a political scientist and poll director, said, "Voters didn't get a tax hike at the state level as they did in past crises. The key is whether, or how much, they might get in local property tax hikes later this year or next."
However, New Jerseyans on both sides of the ratings equation tend to feel strongly: 28 percent have a "very favorable" opinion of Christie while 27 percent have a "very unfavorable opinion," and 17 percent rate his job performance as "excellent" while 23 percent rate his performance as "poor," and 28 percent "strongly" approve of him while 22 percent "strongly" disapprove.
But the poll finds Christie's favorable-to-unfavorable opinion rating of 47 percent to 39 percent is better than that of most governors in the past two decades: Jim Florio weighs in at 25 percent to 33 percent favorable to unfavorable; Christie Whitman breaks about even with 39 percent to 41 percent; Jim McGreevey is strongly disliked with 23 percent to 48 percent, and Christie's predecessor Jon Corzine gets 36 percent to 52 percent, actually an improvement from 30 percent to 61 percent when he left office a year ago.
Only former governor and Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) shines, with 37 percent favorable and 11 [percent unfavorable, better than a three-to-one ratio.
Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) who was acting governor during the post-Christmas blizzard, benefited a little by the attention, his name recognition moving up four points and his favorable rating moving up six points from 9 percent to 15 percent.
"My guess is that people who saw Senator Sweeney on the news thought he conducted himself very well," Woolley said, "and people who already approved of the governor did not begrudge him a family trip to Disney World over the holidays or think he should have been shoveling snow instead."
Public employee households are part of the explanation for low grades and strong feelings: 40 percent of residents from public employee household rate Christie's performance as "poor" compared to just 17 percent among other households. Two-thirds of public employee households (67%) say the state is "on the wrong track" and a majority (54%) disapprove of the governor's handling of his job.
Three of five voters (62%) continue to say the state should hold the line on spending even if many programs are reduced, while one in five (21%) say the state should raise taxes if necessary to support state programs. Among those who say "hold the line," Christie's approval rate is 67 percent to 23 percent. Among those who say the state needs to raise taxes to support its programs, Christie's approval runs well behind, 29 percent to 64 percent.
"Voters who are in an anti-tax and budget-cutting mood find that Christie has not disappointed them," Woolley said. "Of course, people who object to budget cuts are the ones who are deeply disappointed."
The poll of 802 registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone with both landline and cell phones from Jan. 3 through Sunday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
