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U.S. Sen. Menendez appears unbeatable in November

New Jersey voters split on President Obama’s job evaluation with 46 percent approving and 45 percent disapproving, according to the results of a statewide survey released Friday by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll.

Obama’s one-point advantage is an improvement from two previous three-point deficits (44 to 47 percent)

However, the president has a deficit of eight percentage points among men (40 to 48 percent) compared to an advantage of nine points among women (51 to 42 percent).

Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who shares the president’s election cycle in 2012, defeats two possible Republican challengers in hypothetical matchups.

Menendez beats state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) by 43 to 31 percent, and defeats Tea Partier Anna Little by the exact same margin, 43 to 31 percent.

“Without (Sen.) Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union), the Republicans right now have only the equivalent of generic candidates - not well enough known statewide to have a brand name,” Prof. Peter Woolley, the poll’s director, said. “That’s the difficulty of having so few statewide elected offices. Challengers typically must struggle for name recognition.”

Some voters are now more optimistic about the direction of the country with 28 percent saying the country is headed in the right direction, an uptick of six points. And there is a corresponding six-point drop, to 61 percent, in those saying the country is on the “wrong track.” The shift is accounted for almost entirely by Democrats.

Democrats, by a margin of 47 to 40 percent, say the country is headed in the right direction, a significant change from the previous measure when many more Democrats (49 percent) said the country was on the wrong track than said it was headed in the right direction (36 percent).

Republicans continue to agree overwhelmingly (87 to 6 percent that the country is on the wrong track.

“Democrats are eager to note any improvements in the economy,” Woolley said. He added, “Given the intense criticism by Republicans of their own candidates for the presidency, Democrats are feeling Obama’s chances of re-election have improved.”

The poll of 800 registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone from Jan. 2 through Sunday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

—TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM