Latest news out of New Jersey today courtesy of Stockton University’s latest poll:
Democrat Phil Murphy leads Republican Kim Guadagno by nearly 18points in New Jersey’s race for governor, according to a Stockton University Poll released today.
Murphy receives 51 percent to 33 percent for Guadagno, including voters leaning toward one candidate or the other, in the poll of 585 likely voters in New Jersey. About 7percent prefer an independent or third party candidate, and 8 percent are undecided or refuse to identify their choice.
Guadagno, the lieutenant governor, has better name recognition than Murphy, but nearly one-third of voters (31 percent) are not familiar with her. However, she is viewed unfavorably by 37 percent compared to 31 percent favorable ratings. Murphy is unfamiliar to 38 percent. But among those who recognize the candidate, 36 percent have favorable opinions to 26 percent unfavorable.
The Stockton Polling Institute of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy interviewed 585 New Jersey adults who are likely voters Oct, 4-12, 2017. Interviewers working from the Stockton University campus called landline and cell telephones. The statewide poll’s margin of error is +/- 4.1 percentage points.
Click here for the full results.
By the way, former Vice President Joe Biden was in town and slammed Guadagno pretty hard on this:
Former Vice President Joe Biden is never one to mince words.
And on Thursday, he had a few choice ones for a controversial new campaign ad from Kim Guadagno, the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, calling it the "return of Willie Horton."
Stumping for Democratic nominee Phil Murphy at the Sheraton in Edison, Biden blamed Republicans like President Donald Trump and Gov. Chris Christie for allowing "gutter politics" to rise up in America.
Then, Biden drew attention to the television ad that Guadagno, Christie's lieutenant governor, released Wednesday.
The ad alleges that Murphy -- the former U.S. ambassador to Germany who is leading Guadagno by double digits in all polls -- would protect undocumented immigrants who commit crimes, including "deranged murderers."
"I just saw it on a laptop," Biden told a crowd of a few hundred Murphy supporters in a ballroom at the hotel. "The return of Willie Horton."
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