FDU Public Mind Poll: Christie transcending partisanship in a Democratic leaning state

Governor Chris Christie continues to enjoy sky high approval ratings among New Jersey voters and is heavily favored to be reelected in November, according to a Farleigh Dickinson University Public Mind Poll released this morning.

66% of New Jersey voters, including 55% of Democrats and 61% of Independents approve of the governor’s job performance.  If the election were held today, Christie would defeat presumptive Democratic nominee Barbara Buono by 58%-22% with 20% unsure. Christie would garner 36% of the Democratic vote.

48% say they like the Christie personally and like his policies. 18% like him, but not his policies. 12% don’t like the man, but like his policies and 17% don’t like him or his policies.  5% are comatose and were awakened by the pollster’s phone call.

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Another Democratic Mayor Defects To Christie Team

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Save Jersey is reporting that East Brunswick Mayor David Stahl is endorsing Governor Chris Christie for reelection, leaving the Democratic Party and will run for the State Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Buono. Buono will be the Democratic nominee for governor, unless Carl Bergmanson or Willie Arajuo beat her in the June 4 primary.

Stahl is the third Democratic mayor to endorse Christie’s reelection.  He is the first to join the GOP and become a Christie running mate.

Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long endorsed Christie last month. Harrison Mayor Raymond McDonough endorsed the governor in January.

Middlesex County Republican Chairman, Senator Sam Thompson told MMM that Stahl has his “100% support.” “I can’t think of anyone better to win Buono’s seat,” said Thompson, “Stahl was reelected in East Brunswick last year by a wider margin that Obama won the town.”

Christie narrowly won the normally Democratic Middlesex County in 2009.  Thompson said the GOP will field its strongest legislative ticket in memory in an effort to sweep the 7 districts that represent his county.

Stahl will make his formal announcement tomorrow morning, 10:30 am, at the Colonial Diner on Route 18, according to SaveJersey.

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AshBritt CEO Deflates Buono’s Hopes Of Making Clean Up A Campaign Issue

Trenton Democrats’ continuing quest to turn Governor Christie’s strongest issue against him suffered a set back yesterday when AshBritt CEO Randall Perkins won over Democratic members of a Joint Legislative Oversight Committee and flummoxed presumed gubernatorial nominee Barbara Buono by calling her on the political motivation of her questioning.

Facing four hours of questioning by the bi-partisan committee chaired by Senator Bob Gordon (D-Bergen), Perkins frequently praised the legislators for exercising their oversight duties, while combatively swatting back Democratic allegations of impropriety disguised as questions.

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Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Calls for Gopal’s Resignation

Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Willie Araujo.

Shut out of the Monmouth County Democratic nominating convention, gubernatorial candidate Willie Araujo disputed Chairman Vin Gopal’s assertion that his nominating process is transparent.  Araujo said Gopal should resign immediately.

Araujo said he called Gopal multiple times about his candidacy and never heard back from the chairman. Gopal said that the Monmouth Democrats had a post on facebook on February 3 asking potential candidates for governor to submit their paperwork by February 9.  Only State Senator Barbara Buono responded to the facebook post.  Buono appeared at the convention is Asbury Park this morning and was nominated by acclamation.

In addition to Gopal, Araujo said he left messages for the Democratic County Chairs in Atlantic, Bergen, Camden, Essex, and Gloucester counties.  He said that Somerset County Chair Peg Schaffer spoke with him for over an hour.

“Chairwoman Peg Schaffer agreed to speak with me, we spoke for almost an hour and agreed that it’s up to the voters to decide their next Governor,” said Araujo,”Chairman Gopal, you should talk to Chairwoman Schaffer and take some lessons from her. You cannot endorse someone simply based on friendship. I think the Democrats in Monmouth County deserve better. You cannot be one sided… You should resign immediately.”

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Gopal: Bergmanson and Araujo Did Not Apply

Monmouth Dems will unanimously endorse Buono tomorrow

Responding to Democratic gubernatorial candidates Carl Bergmanson and Willie Araujo’s statements to MMM that they were not invited to the Monmouth Democratic Nominating Convention, Chairman Vin Gopal issued the following statement:

“We have one of the most open conventions in all of New Jersey. To date, I have only heard from one candidate seeking support for the Democratic Nomination for Governor – Senator Barbara Buono. We have sent several e-mails out to our database asking candidates who are interested in running for Governor, Legislature or County Offices to file a letter of intent. In addition, we had a public post on our Facebook Page on February 3rd asking potential candidates for Governor to get their paperwork in by February 9th, our deadline for candidates for candidates seeking our support. Any candidate who says they have reached out to us and we did not get back to them is just not true. We only heard from Senator Buono and that is who we will be unanimously endorsing tomorrow.”

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Will Buono Get On The Ballot?

Buono’s Challengers Not Invited to Monmouth Democratic Convention

It’s unimaginable that the Democratic Party would nominate Carl Bergmanson or Willie Araujo over Barbara Buono for Governor.  However, Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal is apparently worried.

Fresh on the heels of Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long’s defection from the Buono Brigade with her endorsement of Chris Christie, Gopal sent out a plea for volunteers to collect signatures for the presumptive nominee:

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Quinnipiac: New Jersey loves Christie. Barbara who?

If the gubernatorial election was today, Chris Christie would be reelected in a landslide, according to a Quinnipiac poll released this morning.

Christie beats likely challenger Barbara Buono by 62%-25%. Christie leads with women 54-38, with men 71-18.  Republicans back the governor by 93-4, Independents by 68-18.  Democrats would vote for Buono, 51-31, despite the fact that they approve of the job Christie is doing by a 56-38 margin.  Overall, New Jersey voters approve of Christie by 74-22.  That’s the highest rating of any governor in the 17 years Quinnipiac has been doing surveys.

83% of New Jersey voters don’t know enough about Buono to form an opinion.

In a 2016 presidential match up with Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State beats Christie for New Jersey’s 14 electoral votes by 4 points, 49-45.  Christie beats New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for president 54%-36%.

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Monmouth Dems still looking to fill their dance card

Their nominating convention is on Saturday, but the Monmouth County Democrats are still searching for candidates to run for the legislature and sheriff.  Today’s “soft deadline” for candidates to come forward could be extended beyond the convention.  Chairman Vin Gopal’s quest to be the first county party to officially annoint Senator Barbara Buono with the gubernatorial nomination will end up being a self-inflicted wound if he doesn’t have a full slate to announce on Saturday afternoon.

With the official deadline for candidates to file their petitions not until April 1 and with Buono the only serious candidate for governor (there are two other announced candidates, former Glen Ridge Governor Carl Bergmanson and union carpenter Willie Araujo of Edison), Gopal’s decision to hold his convention a month earlier than normal looks silly.

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Monmouth Poll: Christie looks like a lock for reelection

A Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll released this morning echoed the recent Quinnipiac and Rutgers-Eagleton Polls.  Over 70% of New Jersey voters approve of Governor Chris Christie’s performance and over 60% favor his reelection.  Christie is trouncing presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee Senator Barbara Buono by more than 40 points.

78% of voters haven’t heard enough of Buono to form an opinion about her.  Polling Director Patrick Murray said the race is likely to narrow to a 20% gap in favor of Christie and the Democratic challenger becomes better known.

“There is a long history that shows horse race polling has little predictive value this far out from an election. This is especially true when there is a popular incumbent and a largely unknown challenger. The important number here is that 6-in-10 voters support Gov. Christie’s re-election,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “This suggests that the race should close in on a 20 point margin as the campaign progresses and Buono becomes better known. The question remains whether the challenger can peel off Christie supporters to shrink that gap even more.”

Murray says that jobs, property taxes, schools, storm recovery and gun control are very important issues to the New Jersey electorate.   Minimum wage is an important issue with most voters supporting an increase.  However, Christie’s conditional veto of a minimum wage increase has not hurt his support with most voters.

According to Murray’s analysis, Buono has the potential to motivate 7% of the electorate to switch from voting for Christie to voting for her. If she gets all of them, Christie still wins with over 50% of the vote.

Monmouth polling staff attempted to identify voters who could potentially be motivated to switch support from the incumbent because of this issue. This group includes voters who: feel Gov. Christie deserves re-election, are dissatisfied with his veto, say they will vote to support a minimum wage ballot measure, and report that the issue is very important to their vote for governor. Analysis shows that this group comprises about 7% of the total electorate. Hypothetically, if Sen. Buono were able to convince all of these voters to abandon their support for Christie, his re-election support would remain above the 50% mark.

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Democratic Legislators Set To Investigate AshBrit’s Alleged Gouging

By Art Gallagher

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, and Senate President Steve Sweeney told The Star Ledger that they are going to investigate the lucrative no-bid state contract that AshBrit received from the Christie Administration for Superstorm Sandy clean up and the well connected lobbyists the company used to sell their premium priced services to municipal officials from Sandy ravaged communities.

“We already had questions about how Sandy relief money was being spent, and these findings raise those questions to a new level,” Prieto told The Star-Ledger. “This money is supposed to be spent properly to benefit New Jersey residents and communities devastated by Sandy, not become a feeding frenzy for lobbyists and an excuse to bypass regulations on business, the environment and pay-to-play.”

As a conservative, it warms my heart to see Democrats fighting wasteful spending. Maybe Trenton really has been turned upside down.

As a skeptic, I expect that whatever hearings the Democrats hold will be done with the intention of denting Governor Christie’s substantial Sandy related armor going into the November election.

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