A majority of New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Gov. Christie is doing, with most expressing dissatisfaction with his handling of Hurricane Sandy recovery, the state economy, taxes, and other issues, a new poll has found.
Fifty-four percent of registered voters in the Garden State disapprove of Christie's job performance, while just 41 percent approve, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll. Those figures track closely with Rutgers' last survey, in February.
The low ratings come as Christie considers whether to pursue the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. He plans to visit New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary, next week.
Forty-eight percent of voters approved of Christie's stewardship of the state's recovery from Sandy, the first time that support for the governor on that issue has dropped below 50 percent, the poll found.
Christie is not performing well in national polls either. For example, a March Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 57 percent of Republican primary voters could not see themselves supporting his candidacy. Only Donald Trump fared worse in that respect.
Thirty-two percent of such voters said they could vote for Christie. Rutgers-Eagleton polled 860 adults statewide on landlines and cellphones from March 27 to April 3. The margin of error was 4 percentage points. Interviews were done in English and, when requested, Spanish.
(c)2015 The Philadelphia Inquirer
