N.J. to Christie: Sit Down and Shut Up

A majority of New Jersey’s registered voters believe Gov. Chris Christie will not make a good president -- but they think he’s going to run anyway.

The latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll found 69 percent of voters surveyed think he would not be a good president, a 10-point increase in how many view him negatively since February, according to an Eagleton Institute of Politics news release.

And while so many do not think Christie would make a good president, 57 percent still believe he will become a candidate.

His job approval rating as the governor has continued to slide, to 41 percent giving him a favorable rating.

Christie’s in-your-face style, including incidents where he told a Monmouth County man to “sit down and shut up” during a Belmar press conference -- which supporters have lauded as refreshing and honest -- was not directly addressed in the poll. But voters were asked if ”presidential” describes the governor. Of those surveyed, 58 percent said “presidential” does not describe the governor ”at all;” 28 percent said it describes him “somewhat well,” and 10 percent said it decribes him “very well.”

Some 44 percent of New Jersey voters say Christie’s chances of becoming the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election have worsened over the last few months, 46 percent say the chances are about the same, and 6 percent say they have improved, according to the news release.

“Voters who know Gov. Christie best simply do not see him as president,” David Redlawsk, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling and professor of political science at Rutgers University, said in a prepared statement. “New Jerseyans have watched him in good times and bad. While his strengths were on display after the Sandy disaster, he was seen as just another politician after the Bridgegate scandal and the investigations it spawned, and he has never recovered.”

The statewide poll of 860 adults, including 722 registered voters, was conducted between March 27 and April 3, and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

Some 85 percent of registered Democratic voters, and 68 percent of independents say Christie would not make a good president, the news release said. Some 53 percent of registered Republicans say he would make a good president.

Redlawsk said the governor may have had a better chance at the presidency in 2012.

“While New Jersey voters were also not keen on him running when we asked in 2011, the national environment was very different, with many Republican leaders begging him to run,’’ he said. “Four additional years in office have not helped his case, even with his near-universal support right after Superstorm Sandy. It’s a different Republican pool, and a Bridgegate-damaged Chris Christie.”