August 15, 2015
New Jersey residents think Governor Chris Christie should resign for his presidential run, and believe he's putting his national ambitions above their interests, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll.
The poll, released Thursday, shows 54 percent of those surveyed said he should step down while 41 percent he should continue serving as the state's top executive while trying to earn the nation's highest office.
However when presented with the legislation introduced by Democratic lawmakers that would force Christie to resign because of his run, the majority flips, with 45 percent saying he should be required to quit and 52 percent saying the Republican should be able to continue serving.
“Identifying Democrats as the bill’s authors and its provision to 'force' Christie to resign causes independents to completely switch sides and boosts support among Republicans for Christie to remain as governor,” said Ashley Kornig, the assistant director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University in a press release. “It even suppresses support for resignation among Democrats.”
The poll also shows that a majority of those surveyed believe Christie is putting his presidential run above the interests of his constituents. When asked whether the race or what's best for New Jersey is what he's focused on, 59 percent said the former while only 27 percent said the latter.
Christie was able to score a coveted spot in Fox News' primetime GOP debate earlier this month, where he most notably sparred with U.S. Senator Rand Paul over NSA surveillance.
According to the latest poll aggregation from Real Clear Politics, his performance didn't do much. He currently sits with 3.8 percent of likely Republican voters, far behind the frontrunners.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll surveyed 867 New Jersey adults, including 757 registered voters. Of those voters, 35 percent were Democrats, 42 percent were Independents, and 23 percent were Republicans. It was conducted from July 25 to August 1 and had a margin of error of 4.0 percentage points.
