Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill are competing in November to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy (Photos by Dana DiFilippo and Amanda Brown)
Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill are locked in a tight race to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, according to a new poll released Thursday.
Each candidate received 43% from the 935 self-reported likely voters surveyed by Emerson College Polling, marking a slowdown for Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman who has led the contest in every other public poll of the race. Just under 11% of respondents were undecided, and 3% plan to vote for a different candidate.
Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman, and Sherrill are vying in November to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Spencer Kimball, the poll’s executive director, in a statement noted that poll results show state and federal executives are unpopular.
“Both President Trump and Governor Murphy are underwater among Jersey voters. Sherrill is trying to tie Ciattarelli to Trump, at the national level, and Ciattarelli is trying to tie Sherrill to Murphy and the cost of living at the state level,” Kimball said.
The poll found Murphy holds a 35% job approval rating, with 44% disapproving. Just over a fifth of voters, 21%, said they had no opinion on the two-term governor. Trump’s approval rating is at 41%, with 51% disapproving (9% are unsure.)
The poll found independents favored Ciattarelli 52% to 26%. Republicans (86%) were a little more likely to back their party’s nominee than were Democrats (81%).
Overwhelmingly, voters said the economy (51%) was the most pressing issue facing New Jersey, followed by threats to democracy (13%) and housing affordability (11%).
Few voters named crime (5%) and immigration policy (5%) as a chief issue, though even fewer named abortion access (0.9%).
Trump has been a major issue on the campaign trail, with Democrats warning voters that Ciattarelli would be the “Trump of Trenton.” The new poll says voters narrowly preferred a candidate who would stand up to the Trump administration (51%) to one who would work with it (49%).
Both Ciattarelli and Sherrill have pledged to lower costs for residents plagued by skyrocketing electric bills. The new poll says voters continued to blame utility companies (30%) and the governor (22%) for rising utility rates. Few (7%) said the federal government — which has indefinitely paused New Jersey’s offshore wind projects and regulates New Jersey’s grid operator — was to blame.
Even fewer (4%) said PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for New Jersey and 12 other states, was responsible for rising electricity rates. A little more than a third of voters (35%) said everyone was to blame.
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