NJ governor’s approval rating slips to 57 percent: poll

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) approval rating has slipped to 57 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday.

Thirty-five percent of the New Jersey survey’s respondents disapprove of Murphy’s job as governor.

While Murphy still maintains a majority approval, it’s a stark decrease from the approval rating he received in April of last year, when Monmouth polled residents as the coronavirus pandemic was in its early stages. At the time, 71 percent of residents approved of Murphy while 21 percent disapproved.

Seventy-nine percent at the time approved of his handling of the pandemic.

Murphy, who is up for reelection this year, enjoys an 88 percent job approval from Democrats, compared with 48 percent approval from independents and 21 percent from Republicans, according to Monmouth’s poll.

The survey found that 48 percent of polled New Jersey residents think the governor should be reelected while 43 percent said it is time for someone else to take office.

Support for Murphy’s reelection is strongest among Democrats, 77 percent of which want to see him in office for a second term. Thirty-nine percent of independents and 15 percent of Republicans want to see him reelected.

For context, Murphy’s predecessor, former Gov. Chris Christie (R), had a 63 percent job approval and 56 percent support for reelection in 2013. Christie won a second term with 60 percent of the vote.

Monmouth surveyed 706 New Jersey adults by telephone from April 29 to Tuesday. The poll has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.