newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

New Jerseyans taking part in the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City or a related demonstration in Philadelphia have the support of the state’s voters by a margin of 46 to 29 percent, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll published Thursday.

Meanwhile, 4 of 5 voters (81 percent) are following the protests, with 3 of 5 (62 percent) saying they’ve heard “a great deal” about them.

“Sympathy for the Wall Street protesters is a direct reflection of voters’ general dissatisfaction with the direction of the country,” Prof. Peter Woolley, the poll‘s director, said. “Something broke and voters know that whatever it was, it hasn’t been fixed.”

Sympathy for the movement cuts across gender, age and education. Men and women, both young and old voters, high school-educated and those with graduate degrees support the protests in equal proportions.

But support for the movement does reflect partisan splits. Democrats support it by the wide margin of 6 to 1 (68 to 11 percent), and Republicans oppose it by 2 to 1 (53 to 23 percent). Similarly, self-described liberals support it by about 9 to 1 (70 to 8 percent) and conservatives condemn it by almost 2 to 1 (50 to 28 percent). Those who approve of the president support it by 61 to 13 percent, and those who disapprove of the president oppose it by 47 to 31 percent.

Voters in North Jersey, closer to Wall Street, are also more likely to support the movement than voters south of Union County (51 percent compared to 42 percent). And while those who say the country is going in the right direction support the movement 56 to 17 percent, even those who say the country is on the wrong track split in favor of the movement 42 to 36 percent.

One in 4 voters is unsure whether to support or oppose the protests (24 percent), and that substantial proportional “don’t know” cuts across every demographic sub-group from party and ideology to age and education.

“The fact that so many people don’t know what to make of the protests is a reflection of the movement’s incoherence,” Woolley said. “The protest has no one message. It means whatever the beholders, pro or con, want it to mean,” he said. “But mostly it means voters are dissatisfied with the direction of the country.”

22 percent of voters say the country is headed in the right direction, while 67 percent say the country is “on the wrong track.”

This is a stark contrast to voters’ views of the direction of the state expressed in the same survey: 46 percent saying the state is headed in the right direction and 43 percent saying the state is on the wrong track.

Nearly 9 of 10 New Jersey Republicans (88 percent) say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Independents agree (78 to 16 percent) and so do Democrats (49 to 36 percent).

“When New Jersey voters’ see the direction of their state as better than the direction of the country, it’s a sure sign something is deeply wrong,” Woolley said.

President Obama has a net negative approval rating (44 to 47 percent) for two months running now, the first time in his presidency. However, men and women differ, with men disapproving 51 to 41 percent and women approving 48 to 42 percent.

The poll of 800 registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone from Oct. 17 through Sunday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.