Quinnipiac: New Jersey Voters Approve of Christie and His Tax Cut

82% Don’t Know Enough About Kyrillos To Form An Opinion On His U.S. Senate Candidacy

New Jersey voters continue to approve of the job Governor Chris Christie is doing, according to a Quinnipiac poll released this morning.

Christie’s job approval is 55-38%, with a significant gender gap. Men approve of the governor 62-32% while woman approve 49-44%.

New Jersey voters approved of Christie’s proposed income tax cut by a 55-31% margin.

If Christie were selected as the vice presidential nominee, his presence on the ballot as Mitt Romney’s running mate would close the gap between Romney and President Obama, but not by enough to carry the state. Obama beats Romney 49-39% in New Jersey. The gap closes to 49-43% if Christie in Romney’s VP choice.

In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez bests Republican Joe Kyrillos by 49-34% with Independents favoring the Democrat 44-32%.

82% of the respondents did not know enough about Kyrillos to form and opinion.

“Sen. Robert Menendez’s numbers are only so-so, but nobody has heard of State Sen. Joe Kyrillos. He gets only the generic Republican vote,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

In the Republican presidential primary, Romney leads former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum 38-24%, with Texas Congressman Ron Paul coming in third with 12%. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gets 9%. The Republican primary survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.6%.

Obama beats all Republican contenders in New Jersey. Santorum by 52-34%, Gingrich by 55-30% . If Quinnipiac polled Paul against Obama, they did not report the results.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1396 registered voters, 446 (32%) of them Republicans, between February 21-27. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.6%