Christie With 10 Point Lead Over Corzine

Its good news and coming off of bad press for Christie and a brutal yet ineffective series of ads linking Christie with Bush it confirms that the upcoming governors race is leaning heavily towards the GOP and Christie's reform message:

Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine is losing the battle of the attack ads in his campaign for reelection and now trails Republican challenger Christopher Christie 47 - 37 percent among likely voters, with 9 percent for independent candidate Christopher Daggett, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to a 46 - 40 percent Christie lead, with 7 percent for Daggett, in an August 11 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University .

Corzine leads 74 - 15 percent among Democratic likely voters, with 7 percent for Daggett. Christie leads 86 - 8 percent among Republicans, with 4 percent for Daggett, and 46 - 30 percent among independent voters, with 16 percent for Daggett.

Of the 77 percent of New Jersey likely voters who have seen Corzine ads criticizing Christie for giving contracts to people with ties to former President George W. Bush, 56 percent say the ads are an unfair attack, while 36 percent say they are a legitimate campaign issue. Independent voters say 59 - 34 percent the ads are unfair. Among those who know of other charges, claims or attacks, voter verdicts are:

Split verdict 47 - 47 percent for Christie ads attacking Corzine for failing to guard against economic collapse; Unfair 49 - 43 percent for Corzine attacks on Christie for giving a loan to a former associate in the U.S. Attorney's office; Unfair 47 - 45 percent for criticism of Corzine's personal relationship with a former labor leader.

"Just about everyone has seen Gov. Jon Corzine's TV ads knocking Christopher Christie's ties to the Bush team, but most question whether it's a legitimate issue. 'Unfair,' they say," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Perhaps if the states Democratic party machine wasn't arrested en mass Corzine would be in a better position and perhaps rumors of dropping him would go away. It goes without saying that a GOP win in Jersey would go a long way to dispelling the notion of a permanent Democrat ascendancy across the nations.