The good news for Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie is that two polls out today put him up by 10 percentage points and 5 percentage points over Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine. But there’s a bit of reason for concern. As Mark Impomeni notes, these polls represent the first time since he broke the magic 50 percent mark that Christie has failed to receive a majority in two consecutive independent polls.
With Corzine’s approval rating at 37 percent in the Fairleigh Dickinson poll and 34 percent in the Quinnipiac poll, the governor’s best-case scenario is to squeak out a plurality and hope that independent Christopher Daggett splits the anti-incumbent vote. Quinnipiac found that 59 percent of independents find the incumbent’s attack ads against Christie unfair. But a mudbath is the best environment for Corzine; he desperately needs the race to be about something besides how life in New Jersey has gotten harder, more expensive, and tougher during his reign in Trenton.