The good news for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is that even though less than half of his constituents say they approve of his job performance in
Quinnipiac's latest poll of the state, he's still managing to squeeze out a net positive approval rating with a 49 percent saying they approve and 44 percent saying they disapprove.
The bad news is that these numbers represent a precipitous drop from January when Quinnipiac conducted its first post-lane closure scandal survey. Back then, Christie still had a net approval of 17 points, a 55-38 margin. That was a big drop from July of last year, when his net approval rating was 32 point on a 68-26 margin, but it was still a healthy approval rating, especially for a guy who had just given a two hour press conference presenting himself as the biggest victim of the lane closure scandal.
The poll also shows that in his own state, most voters think he would not be a good president: 57 percent say they don't think he would be good, compared with just 35 percent who say they do. Slightly more people say they want him to run for president—42 percent—but Christie probably shouldn't be too encouraged by that, because 24 percent of Democrats want him to run, many of whom surely understand he would lose.
New Jersey residents also believe the "investigation" commissioned by Christie's office was a sham: 56 percent describe it as a "whitewash." And if evidence emerges that Christie ordered or was aware of the lane closures as they happened, it won't just be his presidential hopes that are over, his tenure as governor probably will be too: 63 percent of New Jersey residents believe he should at least be forced from office if such information emerges, including 25 percent of the state would want to see him prosecuted.
Quinnipiac's poll was conducted between April 2 and 7 with a margin of error of ±2.7 percent.