December 06, 2016
Two polls released Tuesday show that New Jersey voters have quite the disdain for Gov. Chris Christie.
Data from both Quinnipiac and Fairleigh Dickinson universities show that Christie may be the least favored governor in New Jersey's history, with the George Washington Bridge scandal a major key to his downfall.
Fairleigh Dickinson found that 73 percent of registered voters disapprove of Christie's job performance, while Quinnipiac's survey found that 77 percent disapprove, the lowest approval rating for any governor in the country in the more than 20 years that the university's been conducting the survey.
Forty-eight percent of voters also believe that Christie "personally ordered" the traffic jam that evolved into the Bridgegate scandal, while 71 percent said that the governor isn't honest or trustworthy.
Fairleigh Dickinson University found that 70 percent of voters believe that New Jersey is headed down the wrong path, while 71 percent said that they believe Christie should have been a defendant in the Bridgegate trial, where the governor's two former aides were convicted.
"How the mighty have fallen. Remember four years ago, when Republican leaders were pleading with New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie to run for president and he looked like a sure thing for reelection – which he was?" said Maurice Carroll, assistant poll director for Quinnipiac University. "Now the neighbors have handed him the most dubious of honors, the lowest approval rating ever measured for a governor in the states surveyed by the Quinnipiac University Poll."
Quinnipiac surveyed more than 1,300 New Jersey voters via telephone between Nov. 28 and Dec. 4, while researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson surveyed 836 New Jersey voters between Nov. 30 and Dec. 4.
Christie worked closely alongside President-elect Donald Trump's campaign prior to his victory. Slated to take over as Trump's transition team leader, he was demoted to vice chair last month while Vice President-elect Mike Pence took over Christie's presumed role.
Christie has since expressed interest in becoming the chairman of the Republican National Convention.
