44% Have Favorable View of Christie, 29% Like Rubio

Most Republicans have favorable opinions of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and freshman Florida Senator Marco Rubio, but for a sizable chunk of voters both men are largely unknown.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Christie, while 31% view him unfavorably.  These figures include 14% with a Very Favorable opinion of the outspoken first-term governor and 13% who see him Very Unfavorably.  Twenty-six percent (26%) don’t know enough about Christie to offer any opinion of him.  (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

A couple weeks ago, amidst speculation that Christie might enter the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, 38% expressed a favorable view of him, while 27% registered an unfavorable opinion.

Rubio, considered a rising star in the GOP, earns favorable reviews from 29% of voters, with 15% Very Favorable.  Slightly more (31%) have an unfavorable impression of him, including 14% with a Very Unfavorable opinion.  But 41% have no opinion of the Senate newcomer.

Among GOP voters, however, 71% share a favorable opinion of Christie, and 55% think favorably of Rubio. The plurality of Democrats regard both men unfavorably. Among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties, nearly one-third (31%) venture no opinion of Christie, and nearly half (49%) have no opinion of Rubio.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 12-13, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.