Life Without Corzine?

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Contributing Editor

As New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's approval ratings fall and Republican opponent Chris Christie continues to lead him in the polls, Public Policy Polling asked: Would another Democrat do better than Corzine?

PPP recalled that the Democrats did a switch in 2002, when former Sen. Robert Torricelli quit his re-election race in September after being rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for accepting improper gifts from a contributor. One-time Sen. Frank Lautenberg came out of retirement to take his place and went on to win.

As for the governor's race, a switch wouldn't make much difference based on a couple of hypothetical match-ups selected by PPP. Christie would lead Newark Mayor Cory Booker 41 percent to 33 percent with independent candidate Chris Daggett getting 13 percent. That's roughly the same deficit Corzine has against Christie. The one plus for Booker is that he is seen favorably by 41 percent to 20 percent, although 39 percent don't know enough about him to have a viewpoint.

Eleven-term Rep. Frank Pallone fares worse, trailing Christie 43 percent to 23 percent with 15 percent for Daggett.

Filed Under: Polls, Governors, Poll Watch

Tagged: Chris Christie, Chris Daggett, ChrisChristie, ChrisDaggett, Cory Booker, CoryBooker, Daily Guidance, DailyGuidance, Jon Corzine, JonCorzine, New Jersey, NewJersey

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.