Poll: New Jersey voters turn against Christie

A majority of New Jersey voters have an unfavorable view of Gov. Chris Christie (R), a possible presidential candidate in 2016, according to a new poll.

Only 37 percent of Garden State voters view Christie favorably and 53 percent view him unfavorably, the survey from Rutgers University Eagleton Institute of Politics finds, the first time unfavorable has been the majority opinion.

New Jersey voters similarly disapprove of his job performance: 52 percent said that they did not approve of his performance, while 42 percent said that they did.

{mosads}That is also the first time since at least 2012 the poll has found that more voters disapprove of his job performance.

Twenty percent of voters also said that they thought that Christie’s falling approval rating was affected by his “overall attitude, behavior, personality.” Sixteen percent said that they thought that the “Bridgegate” scandal played a roll, while 10 percent blamed his falling rating in New Jersey on his presidential ambitions.

The numbers could cast a shadow over Christie’s presidential hopes.

Last month, he launched a political action committee that can help him build a campaign apparatus should he chose to run for the White House. He has also been traveling around the country and world to raise his profile and build his foreign policy credentials.

That has sometimes put him in the news for the wrong reasons: When he was visiting London this month he said that parents needed “some measure of choice” on whether to vaccinate their children. Though he quickly walked the comments back, coverage of the remarks dominated the rest of his trip.

The poll had a sample of 694 registered voters and was conducted Feb. 3-10. It had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.