We’ll find out tomorrow night if Governor Chris Christie’s 11th push for coattails is working, but an FDU Public Mind Poll released this morning indicates that the Republican brand has been damaged by the antics of Congressional Republicans and that Christie’s personal popularity is not enough to overcome New Jersey’s Democratic tilt.
FDU surveyed 1206 registered voters last week on how they feel about the job Christie is doing in New Jersey, President Obama’s handling of the federal budget negotiations and Congressional Democrats and Republicans handling of the federal budget negotiations.
As has consistently been the case over the last year, Christie’s approval numbers are very strong. The governor’s approval rating is positive 61%-24%. Obama’s handling of the federal budget is disapproved of by 52% of NJ voters and approved by only 38%. Congressional Democrats got a negative rating from 57% with only 32% approving. 75% disapprove of how Congressional Republicans have handled the federal budget, including 79% of Independents and 58% of Republican voters. Only 14% of NJ voters, 33% of Republicans, approve of the job Congressional Republicans are doing on the budget.
FDU altered the order of their questions before asking participants their partisan identification. Those who were asked about Congressional Republicans immediately before being asked their party ID, were less likely to say they are Republican or that they would vote Republican.
photo credit: Rhoda Chodosh. Click on photo for larger view. Sen Joe Kyrillos is NOT wearing mouse ears.
He’s finally saying it.
Yesterday afternoon at Bachstadt’s Tavern in North Middletown Governor Chris Christie urged the enthusiastic crowd of several hundred to “vote Republican from the top of the ballot to the bottom. I don’t want to serve another day with a Democratic legislature.”
“He finally said it,” I quipped to Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, JR who was present at the rally along with Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnik. “He’s been saying it everywhere,” Kean replied.
“I need Frank Balles in Trenton,” Christie told supporters as he worked the enthusiastic crowd. This trip constituted his second and final announced foray into Southern New Jersey before Election Day. The Governor also had a few harsh words for Balles’s opponent, incumbent state Sen. Jim Whelan, whom Christie rebranded “Grandfather Whelan” and an “animal” simultaneously, implying that the veteran Democrat behaves different back in his district than he does in Trenton.
And PolitickerNJ reports that the Governor declared that the GOP can “turn this blue state red” in Bergen County on Friday.
“We’re driving home for the biggest margin we can get,” Christie said. “We want to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn this blue state red.”
The GOP needs to win five seats in the Senate and nine seats in the Assembly in order to take control of both chambers.
Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan, Jets owner Woody Johnson, and Douglas Eagles, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County.
The NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced yesterday that they are awarding $1.5 million to New Jersey youth serving agencies for repairs to recreational facilities and equipment that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
The announcement took place at the headquarters of the Puerto Rican Association for Human Development in Perth Amboy, in a play room that has recently been renovated with the first $100 thousand distributed of the $1.5 million dollar grant.
The funds are being distributed through the NY/NJ Snowflake Youth Foundation, the newly formed non-profit arm of the Super Bowl Host Committee. The mission of the NY/NJ Snowflake Youth Foundation is to transform after-school facilities for youth in New Jersey and the New York metro area. They are focused on assisting these locations that provide school-age boys and girls with safe and supervised recreational, educational, and character-building activities.
Jets owner Woody Johnson, Co-Chair of the Super Bowl Host Committee and great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson, was on hand for the announcement, as were Al Kelly, President and CEO of the Host Committee, John Lumpkin, MD, Directo r of the Health Care Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, State Senator Joseph Vitale, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz and Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan
The Monmouth County communities of Belmar, Highlands and Manasquan will be beneficiaries of the grant. In Belmar and Masasquan, outdoor recreational facilities of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County will be refurbished. In Highlands, the indoor building and the playground of the Robert D. Wilson Memorial Community Center will be renovated.
Elsewhere in New Jersey, youth recreational facilities in Seaside Heights, Moonachie, Rahway, Toms River and Hackensack are slated to receive financial support.
Anna Little wants round three against Frank Pallone.
In an email this morning to past and present supporters, the 2010 and 2012 GOP nominee for New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District seat in the House of Representatives, Little sang a familiar refrain:
I’m Anna Little and I want to work for YOU in Washington
The biggest, perhaps only, surprise in the FDU Public Mind Poll of the New Jersey gubernatorial race released this morning is that 40% of the respondents identified themselves as Republicans. 47% said they are Democrats and only 13% said they are Independent or refused to identify their party.
The overall results in the FDU poll are in line with the other Independent/Academic polls of the race: Governor Christie is going to win. The question is his margin. Will it be 19% as FDU says this morning, 33% as Quinnipiac said on Tuesday or by 24% as the Monmouth University Poll measured two weeks ago.
In Quinnipiac’s October 29 poll, 30% of likely voters said they were Republican, 34% said they were Democrats and 31% said they were Independent. Monmouth weighted it’s respondents, 38% Democratic, 28% Republican and 34% Independent.
If there is a surge in New Jersey voters considering themselves Republican, there could beunexpected coattails from Christie’s victory into the legislative races. If that happens, Trenton will have been turned upside down.
“IT’S NOT TRUE,” Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ, Monmouth and Middlesex) shouted at Fox News’s Megyn Kelly last night while arguing that President Obama has kept his promise, “If you like your healthcare, you can keep it, period, I guarantee it.”
The bobble-heading Pallone apparently was unaware that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius had testified before a House hearing he was present for, that ObamaCare requires that any insurance policy premium that goes up by $5 or more, is ineligible to be “grandfathered.” Pallone changed his demeanor, but stuck to his talking points and kept bobble-heading, after a clearly exasperated Kelly confronted Pallone with a video clip of Sibelius’s testimony.
Pallone insisted that insurance companies were canceling “lousy” policies because no one would buy them. “But 15 million people did buy them,” Kelly retorted as Pallone bobbled.
This was the second time in a week that Pallone lost his composure and motor functions publicly. On October 24 Pallone bobbled and shouted “I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever this thing is, DO WHAT YOU WANT,” during a House ObamaCare hearing.
Chris Christie at Bachstadt’s Tavern, November 1, 2009
Governor Chris Christie will be returning to Bachstadt’s Tavern in North Middletown on Saturday afternoon, November 2, as his bi-partisan supporters rally to get out the vote for a historic victory.
Bachstadt’s, the traditional venue of Senator Joe Kyrillos’s and his 13th District running mates pre-election rallies, was adopted by Christie for good luck in his 2009 race against Jon Corzine. It was at the Bachstadt’s rally in 2009 that Kyrillos announced that the troubled Corzine campaign was making robo calls for Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett, in an unsuccessful effort to suppress Christie’s voter turnout. MMM confirmed that the calls were paid for by Democrats and was the first to break that story which became national news.
In addition to Christie, 13th District Legislators Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon, and Monmouth County candidates, Sheriff Shaun Golden and Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso will be present to thank and rally their supporters.
The event is from 1PM-4PM and includes all you can eat and drink for FREE! Voluntary donations to any the 13th District or Monmouth County candidates will be accepted.
Bachstadt’s is located at 8 Bray Ave, North Middletown, NJ.
In addition to Bachstadt’s on Saturday, Christie will visit Monmouth County Republican Headquarters, 2 Monmouth Ave, Freehold, on Monday morning November 4 at 11:45 am.
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno will be meeting voters and volunteers on Friday morning, 10:45 at the Middletown Victory Center, 1715 Rt 35 North, Middletown and at the Blue Swan Diner, 2116 Route 35 South, Oakhurst at 11:45 am.. On Tuesday, Guadagno will stop on Monmouth Republican Headquarters at 2:30 PM.
We’ll find out tomorrow night if Governor Chris Christie’s 11th push for coattails is working, but an FDU Public Mind Poll released this morning indicates that the Republican brand has been damaged by the antics of Congressional Republicans and that Christie’s personal popularity is not enough to overcome New Jersey’s Democratic tilt.
