upside down

Governor Jon Corzine’s new poll numbers, an upside-down 37%-52% rating, are worse than Governor James E. McGreevey’s upside-down 38%-47% approval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll released eight days before his resignation in 2004.  Corzine, then a United States Senator, had a 46%-28% approval rating in the same survey.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s approval ratings have returned to being upside-down – 30%-31% -- his lowest approval rating since entering the Senate, according to a new poll released this morning by Quinnipiac University.  Menendez was at 34%-34% in December.  Menendez does not face voters until 2012.

Voters don't seem to like Gov. Jon Corzine or his toll hike planGov. Jon Corzine’s has an upside-down approval rating of 37%-52%, down from 46%--43% in December, and 73% of voters oppose his plan to raise tolls, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.

“Gov. Corzine’s toll hike proposal has smashed into a brick wall of massive voter opposition, causing his approval rating to drop from a three-point positive to a 15-point negative,” said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Even those who don’t drive on the toll roads don’t want toll hikes. Voter anger is so strong that less than a third think the Governor deserves re-election. Corzine’s problems are just made worse by the fact that two thirds of the voters are dissatisfied with the way things are going in New Jersey today,”

More than half of the New Jersey voters surveyed (51%) say that Corzine does not deserve to be re-elected next year, and just 32% says he should serve as second term. Voters split 35%-33% on their desire to vote for Corzine or an unnamed Republican.

Among Democrats, opposition to the toll hikes is at 63%-31%. Corzine’s approvals among Democrats stands at just 53%.