Christie's 'Unfavorable' Ratings Are Highest Among Likely Iowa Caucusers

Gov. Chris Christie has fewer fans and far more detractors among likely Iowa caucus-goers than any candidate in the over-packed Republican field, according to two polls measuring voter sentiment in the leadoff vote for the 2016 presidential nomination.

That’s bad news. Worse, for Christie: There’s no sign of immediate improvement, not with Donald Trump dominating the election news and the New Jersey governor and others struggling to get attention as 17 candidates campaign heavily in Iowa, New Hampshire and the other early voting states.

In Monday’s Monmouth University poll of likely caucus-goers, Christie had the highest unfavorable rating - by far - of all the GOP candidates, at 51 percent. The next highest: Jeb Bush, at 42 percent.

A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday showed the Monmouth poll was no abberation.

Christie has been dogged by declining approval ratings since the disclosures of the “Bridgegate” were made public and he was criticized for his spending practices and his performance as governor.

Efforts to obtain comment from the Christie campaign were unsuccessful.

When Iowa Republicans were asked in the Monmouth poll who they would support in their local caucus, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is the first choice of 22 percent followed by Trump at 13 percent. Ten candidates then follow on the list before getting to Chris Christie, at 1 percent.

Christie has fared better in other polls, drawing 5 percent - tied for sixth place - in a recent Public Policy Poll of Virginia primary voters. In a Fox News poll of all Republican voters across the country, Christie is in ninth place, with 3 percent.

Christie is hoping to make it to the Iowa debate stage, and Fox News is only allowing the top 10 in an average of the five most recent national polls to appear in an Aug. 6 Republican presidential debate.

Christie is also banking a lot of his campaign time in New Hampshire, where a Real Clear Politics average of polls shows him in seventh place, at 5.3 percent.

“Walker has been a favorite of Iowa voters ever since his well-received appearance at the Iowa Freedom summit in January. More recently, Trump has outmaneuvered the rest of the field to earn the second spot despite his controversial statements over the weekend,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a release. “It’s worth noting that Bobby Jindal enjoys more support in Iowa than he does nationally. He is among the top ten candidates in Iowa, but his showing in the national polls makes it unlikely he will gain entry to the first debate.”

Here are the Republican candidates and their favorable and unfavorable ratings in the Monmouth University poll:

• Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush 40% 42%
• Commentator and Doctor Ben Carson 63% 11%
• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie 26% 51%
• Texas Senator Ted Cruz 53% 17%
• Businesswoman Carly Fiorina 44% 10%
• Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore 4% 17%
• South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham 18% 41%
• Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee 58% 23%
• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal 59% 12%
• Ohio Governor John Kasich 24% 17%
• Former New York Governor George Pataki 10% 36%
• Kentucky Senator Rand Paul 42% 32%
• Former Texas Governor Rick Perry 61% 18%
• Florida Senator Marco Rubio 64% 14%
• Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum 50% 27%
• Businessman Donald Trump 47% 35%
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker 73% 9%

Here are both Republican and Democratic candidates favorability ratings in a Quinnipiac Iowa caucus poll released Wednesday:

• Walker 38% 23%
• Carson 24% 15%
• Jindal 30% 21%
• Rubio 36% 27%
• Vermot Sen. Bernie Sanders 32% 28% (Democrat)
• Paul 35% 34%
• Kasich 9% 9%
• Perry 36% 36%
• Huckabee 36% 37%
• Santorum 29% 30%
• Gilmore 1% 4%
• Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee 5% 8% (Democrat)
• Fiorina 13% 17%
• Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley 7% 11% (Democrat)
• Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb 6% 10% (Democrat)
• Cruz 27% 32%
• Vice President Joe Biden 39% 46% (Democrat)
• Bush 37% 45%
• Pataki 3% 14%
• Graham 13% 29%
• Christie 24% 45%
• Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 33% 56%
• Trump 32% 57%