District 9 Voters Prefer Republican Incumbents

Likely voters in District 9, Galloway Township's prefer the Republican incumbents to the Democratic challengers in the Tuesday, Nov. 8 election by wide margins, according to a Stockton College/Zogby poll released on Thursday, Nov. 3 by the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy.

The poll of 602 likely voters was conducted from Oct. 31-Nov. 2, and has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.

Sen. Christopher J. Connors is favored among likely voters by 29 percentage points over Democratic challenger Dorothy Ryan in what the Hughes Center describes as a " with large percentages of still undecided voters," which accounts for more than 22 percent in this particular race.

Ryan has picked up four percentage points since a similar poll was conducted in September, although the Hughes Center stated that Connors led by a similarly wide margin in that poll and is not losing support.

Among Assembly candidates, there is a separation of more than 14 percentage points, with Republican incumbents Brian Rumpf and DiAnne Gove enjoying comfortable margins over Democratic challengers Carla Kearney and Bradley Billihimer.

Rumpf leads with 45 percent, followed by Gove with 40 percent. Kearney and Billihimer polled at just below 26 percent, while nearly 28 percent are undecided.

The Hughes Center stated the incumbents have actually widened their lead since the September poll.

“Redistricting and the low-key nature of this campaign seem to have produced the high level of ‘not sure’ voters,” said Daniel J. Douglas, director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy. “The legislative redistricting process has changed the boundaries of the 9th legislative district and the all the districts in the state, putting unfamiliar voters in low interest contests.”

The poll found likely voters also favor Gov. Chris Christie, as 71 percent viewed him favorably or somewhat favorably, and 61 percent said the state was moving in the right direction.

President Barack Obama is not viewed in the same light, as only 43 percent viewed Obama favorably and 58 percent had a somewhat unfavorbale or very unfavorable view of the president.