New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's lead over his Republican challenger in the upcoming gubernatorial election recently shrunk to six percentage points in the latest poll from Emerson College and PIX11 News.
Murphy still holds the advantage with support from half of likely voters, but GOP nominee Jack Ciattarelli appears to have improved from polls taken in previous months that showed Murphy with sizable leads.
Emerson and PIX11 found that:
- 50% of likely voters back Murphy.
- 44% support Ciattarelli.
- 59% of undecided voters support Ciattarelli.
- 41% support Murphy.
A Stockton University poll from September showed the governor with a nine-point percentage lead:
- 50% for Murphy.
- 41% for Ciattarelli.
Fairleigh Dickinson University found in June that Murphy was up 15 percentage points:
- 48% for Murphy.
- 33% for Ciattarelli.
PIX11 notes that although Ciattarelli has made Murphy's COVID-19 health and safety restrictions a focal point of his campaign, vowing repeatedly to reduce many of the provisions, the poll ''shows COVID issues are not front of mind for New Jersey voters. Among those surveyed about what the top priority for the governor should be, 51% said taxes were the most important issue. Jobs at 16%, and healthcare at 13% were a distant second and third respectively.''
Murphy's favorability was found to be 49%, with 47% viewing his job performance unfavorably.
Emerson and PIX 11 polled 600 likely voters from Oct. 15-18 with a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points.