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NJ Governor--Corzine 44% Forrester 39% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Survey of 500 Likely Voters November 6, 2005
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November 6, 2005--Democrat Jon Corzine's lead has fallen to its smallest level ever over Republican Doug Forrester in the race to be New Jersey's next Governor. The final Rasmussen Reports poll of Election 2005, conducted on Sunday night, finds Senator Corzine with 44% of the vote and Forrester with 39%. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Cross Tabs Available for Premium Members. Twelve percent (12%) of voters are undecided at this time. That's up from earlier surveys and extraordinarily high for this point in a campaign. In our final Virginia poll for Election 2005, just 3% of voters are undecided. Some of those who are currently undecided may simply stay home on Election Day. Seventy-three percent (73%) of New Jersey voters say they have read, seen, or heard news stories about comments made by Corzine's ex-wife. Those comments were reported by the New York Times and then played in a Forrester commercial over the weekend. Of those who know about the comments, 31% say they are somewhat or very important in terms of impacting their voting decision. Sixty-eight percent (68%) say the comments are not very important or not at all important. Still, support for Corzine is now at the lowest level of the campaign--down five points from 49% two weeks ago. One out of seven Democrats (15%) say they are not sure how they will vote or say they will vote for a third-party option. While support for Corzine is down, Forrester still can't break through the 40% barrier. In fact, he has only reached 40% of the vote twice in the seven election polls released by Rasmussen Reports this year. Opinions of both Forrester and Corzine have fallen over the past two weeks. Forrester is viewed favorably by 37% of New Jersey voters and unfavorably by 42%. For Corzine, the numbers are even more negative--36% favorable and 47% unfavorable. [More Below]
The survey found that 5% of voters say they will vote for someone other than Forrester or Corzine. It is highly unlikely that other candidates will attract such a large share of the vote. However, this reflects general dissatisfaction with the major party candidates. Property taxes are considered the most important issue by 43% of New Jersey voters. That was the top issue two weeks ago. Corruption moved into second place among concerns of New Jersey voters. It was named most important by 21% of those in the Garden State. No other issue reached double digits. On the issue of taxes, 37% trust Forrester more than Corzine. Thirty-five percent (35%) take the opposite view while 28% say they don't trust either man. On economic growth, 41% trust Corzine more, 34% trust Forrester, and 19% say neither. When it comes to corruption, 36% trust Forrester more, 27% Corzine, and 31% neither. It is interesting to note that preferences on those issues have changed little over the past two weeks. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of New Jersey voters Approve of the way President Bush is handling his job. Sixty percent Disapprove. Those numbers are a bit lower than his national Job Approval Ratings. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome. During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To keep up with our latest releases, be sure to visit the Rasmussen Reports Home Page.
This survey of 500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports November 6, 2005. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. |
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