Fewer than half of the state’s residents approve of Gov. Phil Murphy’s performance as the state’s chief executive, according to a poll released Oct. 11 by Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Murphy’s approval rating is at 45 percent with 37 percent disapproving. A poll in May showed Murphy with a 42 percent approval rating and 32 percent disapproval; in February the numbers were 52 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval.
Murphy’s relatively low approval rating doesn’t seem to be hurting the Democratic Party. Among registered voters, 42 percent said they intend to vote for Democrats in the upcoming Assembly races; 29 percent plan to vote Republican.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s approval rating is still below 50%. – EDWIN J. TORRES/GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
“It looks like Governor Murphy will continue to have one-party rule in the state,” said FDU professor Krista Jenkins, the poll’s director. “But apparently, that hasn’t been enough to help him break fee of the approval numbers that kept him largely beneath a majority threshold.”
The FDU poll also showed a significant gain in the percentage of residents who are satisfied with the state’s direction: 47 percent say the state is on the right track while 42 percent say it’s on the wrong track. In February, when FDU last posed the right track/wrong track question, 42 percent of respondents said the state was heading in right direction but 58 percent said it was on the wrong track.
FDU pollsters interviewed 801 New Jersey adults from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
