Jon Corzine, the Democratic candidate for governor, has increased his lead over GOP challenger Doug Forrester in a new poll, but nearly half of the respondents who chose a candidate said they may still change their mind. Corzine was favored by 48 percent of respondents in the Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll published Monday, while 28 percent supported Forrester and about one in five said they were undecided. And among those who said they were likely to vote in the Nov. 8 election, Corzine leads Forrester by 18 percentage points, 49 percent to 31 percent. The telephone poll of 673 registered voters was conducted from Sept. 6-9 and has a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
In the last Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll, conducted just after Forrester won the GOP nomination in the June 7 primary, Corzine held a lead of 10 percentage points. Forrester's standing in the latest poll may be suffering from sharp criticism directed at President Bush, a fellow Republican whose administration has received poor marks for its response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, according to poll director Murray Edelman. ``It sure does look it's related,'' he said, noting that the president's approval ratings have hit all-time lows in some national surveys and in New Jersey. A Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll published Sunday found only a third of respondents approve of Bush's job performance.
Corzine also gained ground among independents. The Democrat now holds a 43 percent to 26 percent edge among that group, a major shift from the June survey where Forrester led that group 35 percent to 29 percent. Meanwhile, 81 percent of Democrats supported Corzine and 70 percent of Republicans backed Forrester, about the same as in the previous poll The poll also found that questions raised in recent weeks about Corzine's personal life and Forrester's business dealings were not a factor for a majority of respondents.
Only 50 percent were aware that Corzine forgave a mortgage loan for a former girlfriend who heads a state workers union, and just 31 percent had heard concerns about whether Forrester violated state election law by contributing to Republican committees and candidates while owning an insurance company. State law bars those with a majority interest in insurance or banking firms from contributing to political campaigns. In both cases, 54 percent of those who had heard about the matters said it made no difference in how they would vote.When respondents were asked which candidate would do a better job of tackling a variety of state issues, Corzine also came out ahead in each case, with Forrester coming closest on the issues of reducing property taxes and eliminating public corruption.
http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_255070609.html
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