New Jersey Governor, polled by The New York Times, 10/9/09-10/14/09, Likely Voters, MoE +/- 4-5%
Jon Corzine (D) 40
Chris Christie (R) 37
Chris Daggett (I) 14
After a week in which Republican challenger Chris Christie has watched poll after poll showing a dwindling lead in the gubernatorial race in the Garden State, this poll is the first to show a Corzine lead of greater than a point.
What's more, among registered voters, the polls lead really expands:
New Jersey Governor, polled by The New York Times, 10/9/09-10/14/09, Registered Voters, MoE +/- 3%
Jon Corzine (D) 40
Chris Christie (R) 30
Chris Daggett (I) 13
That would seem to suggest that the pool of persuadable voters, who are not yet quite sold on voting, is even more anti-Christie than the corps of likely voters identified by the New York Times.
This is, by far, the best polling performance by Corzine since last winter. It is also the first poll that would be able to gauge the effects of the latest campaign scandal to hit the Republican nominee--the revelation mid-week that Christie had billed the taxpayers for luxurious travel that often (over 87% of the time last year) exceeded government limits.
This is a scandal that has some legs, because it runs counter to the "corruption fighter/good government" meme that Christie has tried to flog incessantly.
It is also a scandal that shows no signs of abatement. The latest revelation? Apparently, Chris Christies loves himself some stretch limousine service:
Brown also approved another controversial expenditure for Christie: a $700 round-trip limousine ride between Newark and Atlantic City. Christie, according to his schedules, was attending the annual dinner of the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey. He was shuttled to Atlantic City, stayed over night at the Taj Mahal, submitted $190 in expenses, and took the same limo service back to Newark the next day. Brown approved the final travel voucher for Christie's reimbursement. According to the limousine service, a $700 round-trip fare from Newark to Atlantic City gets you a stretch limo that seats 8.
Christie is starting to push back on the story, but he does not seem to be pushing very hard, and his rationales do not seem to be very good:
"My secretary made my hotel reservations every time I had to travel and the instructions were very clear: find a government rate if you could, and if you couldn't, get me the best rate at the most convenient hotel," explained Christie yesterday. Asked if he signed all of the accompanying paperwork, he responded, "Yes, I have to sign my own forms, but I don't always know what government rate is."
But later in the piece, it is pointed out that he has to submit paperwork when he exceeded the government limit:
Christie submitted a waiver for the room in Boston, as required. In it, he requested additional lodging expenses because there were no rooms available at the $203 per night government rate "due to a high demand for rooms."
Unless there is a logical leap being missed here, this appears to make no sense. How can Christie claim he did not know what the government rate was, when he had to submit paperwork for a waiver every time he exceeded the government rate?
Another fairly sketchy part of the story is that any requests for waivers had to be signed off on. Christie's waivers were signed off on by Michele Brown, his assistant U.S. Attorney, constant travelling companion, and loan recipient. Any waivers for Brown were signed by...Chris Christie. A third party then signed off on the waivers.
Christie would seem to have some explaining to do on the lush travel arrangements. A quick tally by Millennium Radio's Kevin McArdle shows that Christie exceeded federal travel limits 77% of the time between 2004 and 2008. Given such an astonishing frequency, the "hey, sometimes every hotel in the city was booked" excuse isn't going to hold out for long.