New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's net approval rating is down 47 points since its post-Sandy peak and 34 points since December
according to the latest survey of New Jersey residents from Monmouth University and the Asbury Park Press, conducted February 19-23, 2014, with a margin of error of ±3.5 points.
Christie still has a net positive approval rating, but for the first time since 2011, less than half of registered voters approve of the job he's doing. Despite spin by Republicans claiming that New Jerseyans don't care about Christie's traffic jam, 92 percent of people in the state say they've been following the story and 61 percent do not believe Christie is being honest, an increase from 51 percent last month.
Christie's crossover appeal is continuing to diminish, with just 31 percent of Democrats approving of the job he's doing, down from 38 percent last month. That's the core of Christie's problem as a presidential hopeful: His claim to the 2016 nomination was supposed to be that he could win Democrats, but that claim has been dealt a mortal blow and it's nearly impossible to see how he could reclaim it without another "opportunity" like Hurricane Sandy.
Thus, his 2016 plan appears to be to re-reinvent himself as conservative hardliner, and the people of his state are not amused. Nearly two-thirds think he's already running, and 54 percent of adults in the state don't think he has the proper temperament to be president. If we keep on seeing more polls like this, that's not a proposition that will ever be put to the test.