A few days ago I was polled by Quinnipiac University regarding the upcoming gubernatorial election in New Jersey. For those of you who are not familiar with the popular candidates in the lovely Garden State we are choosing between the incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine and the prospective Republican candidate Christopher Christie. The poll lasted some twelve minutes and covered a variety of issues including who I voted for in the recent Presidential election and how I identified myself in terms of my politics.
Anyway, I bring this up because I saw the results of the poll on the Daily Record website a few days ago. Here are the results in their entirety as printed in the Daily Record:
TRENTON — U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie hasn’t said whether he’ll run for governor, but he’d start such a race slightly trailing Gov. Jon S. Corzine, according to results of a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Corzine is favored 42 percent to 36 percent among 2,020 registered voters in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup against Christie. Much of the advantage results from the state’s overwhelming Democratic edge in voter registration, as Christie holds a 38 percent to 32 percent edge among independents.
The two had been tied in polls conducted in August and September. The new poll was done from Nov. 12 to Nov. 17, culminating on the day Christie announced he will resign his post on Dec. 1 — news that sparked talk of a long-anticipated gubernatorial run.
The poll also showed New Jersey disapproves of Corzine’s job performance by a 46 percent to 43 margin and say he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected by a 51 percent to 37 percent margin.
Those numbers are poor but improving, Quinnipiac pollster Clay F. Richards said.
“The long coattails of Barack Obama have reached down into New Jersey and helped Gov. Jon Corzine’s re-election prospects, at least for now,” Richards said.
The poll showed few voters are aware of Christie, despite his nearly seven years as the state’s top federal prosecutor. Seventy percent of respondents said they have not heard enough about Christie to have an opinion about him, compared with 11 percent who aren’t aware enough of the state’s governor.
“That will change as we move along and we get a race,” Richards said.
The poll’s margin of error was 2.2 percent.
I find it interesting that there is no mention of how these votes breakout demographically or geographically. For example, I was asked about my ethnic background as well as what type of area I live in – suburban, rural, or urban. Having studied polling and the ways that pollsters can manipulate the results of such questions, I’m surprised that there is no breakdown of percentage of voters located in urban areas who are pro-Corzine or pro-Christie vs. percentage of voters in suburban or rural areas.
Hmmm…trying to hide the gigantic gap in the number of urban Republicans and suburban and rural Democrats maybe? Everyone in the state knows that Democrats win in New Jersey because the heavily urban areas are so highly populated and are so firmly in the Democratic column that it’s not worth the money to campaign in those areas. I just wish that a respected polling group like Quinnipiac University would sort of put that information out there in the public domain as part of the results of their survey. Why not add a line stating, “As has usually been the case in New Jersey, of the 2,020 registered voters who were polled, 85% of them were located in urban areas. Of these voters, 95% identified as Democratic voters.”
We all know it’s true – just looking for some more truth and full disclosure in the media.
What specifically were the questions they asked? You mentioned a couple broad ideas, but did they ask nitty-gritty questions such as your income and education levels, your religious beliefs, or your age (although I doubt they’d accept a fossil in lieu of a birth certificate)? It is a little strange that they wouldn’t report something like that… even if not all the breakdown, at least a few key figures to give a little insight and perspective into how New Jersey breaks down.
Well look at Mr. Humor with his fossil joke… Made me smile.
They asked all of the information that you suggest – age, sex, location, religion, education levels, income, number of people in my household, etc.