New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a 74 percent approval rating among the state’s voters, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. And while 22 percent disapprove of Christie’s job, 74 percent is the highest approval rating of any New Jersey governor in the 17-year history of the Quinnipiac University surveys.
This is the kind of approval rating that will seemingly fair Christie well in New Jersey’s November gubernatorial elections.
Willie Geist called the number remarkable for a Republican governor in a “blue-ish” state who’s taken on some tough fights.
About 56 percent of the states Democrats approve of Christie, the poll also shows.
The straight-talking Christie first took office in 2010 after winning against Democrat Jon Corzine, who sought re-election with his own approval rating hovering at roughly 46 percent.
“You don’t get those numbers by being a hardened ideologue,” said Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, who has had at least one memorable public discussion with Christie. “Chris Christie has shown he is more than willing to go after his own party, go after President Obama, but it’s all, from his perspective, doing what’s right for the people of his state. And his state is responding to him positively.”
Also, of those Democrats who say they approve of Christie, 48 percent say he deserves re-election.
Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner did express skepticism over whether or not Christie would be ready for a political stage beyond New Jersey.
“We’ve got to see how that personality works. He can’t run around telling everybody to ‘get a life’ all the time and necessarily have it translate into a national candidacy,” he said.
The poll also showed that currently, in a potential 2016 match up against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 49 percent of voters favored Clinton to the 45 favoring Christie. The poll also shows that in a 2016 match up against current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also rumored to be considering a presidential run, Christie leads 54 to 36 percent.
Drew Katchen