Posted on 06/09/2008 6:47:35 PM PDT by Red Steel
emocrat Frank Lautenberg, seeking a fifth term in the U.S. Senate, is in a virtual tie with Republican challenger Dick Zimmer in New Jersey, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey.
Forty-five percent (45%) of likely voters in the predominantly Democratic state favor Lautenberg, while 44% are backing Zimmer, a former U.S. congressman who is running as a fiscal conservative.
The survey was taken 24 hours after Lautenberg, capturing over 60% of the vote, easily defeated another congressman, Robert Andrews, in the state's Democratic primary. Andrews, 50, who was endorsed by most of the state's newspapers, had aggressively attacked the incumbent for his age, but the sparse turnout at the polls and the size of Lautenberg's win indicate that the criticism did not stick with voters.
The 84-year-old Lautenberg countered by painting Andrews as too supportive of President Bush's policies including the war in Iraq, an issue where New Jersey voters break with the national average by overwhelmingly supporting a withdrawal of troops over winning the war.
But Lautenberg, despite primary support from Gov. Jon S. Corzine and other top state Democratic leaders, has some fence-building to do in his own party. While 83% of Republican voters support Zimmer, only 70% of Democrats are backing Lautenberg. Twenty-four percent (24%) of Democrats prefer Zimmer and 5% some other candidate.
Lautenberg is viewed at least somewhat favorably by 48% of New Jersey voters and at least somewhat unfavorably by 47%. Zimmer has an edge here, with 46% of voters at least somewhat favorable to him while only 38% rate him at least somewhat unfavorable.
Historically, however, New Jersey often shows Republicans competitive with Democrats until the fall when the latter pull away decisively. A Republican has not won a statewide election in the Garden State since 1997.
Female voters favor Lautenberg over Zimmer 49% to 40%, with the numbers exactly reversed for male voters who give the Republican the edge.
Given Lautenberg's liberal voting record in the Senate, it is no surprise that conservatives overwhelmingly support Zimmer (79%) over the incumbent (13%). By contrast, liberals back the Democrat (70%), but 22% support the Republican. Moderates give the nod to Lautenberg (49%) over Zimmer (39%), with 6% looking for a third party candidate and 6% undecided.
The new survey also finds that 37% of New Jersey voters rate their Governor's performance as poor. Twenty-nine percent (29%) give Corzine good or excellent marks.
See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs available for Premium Members only.
As crooked as NJ is, the guy doesn’t stand a chance.
How difficult is it to beat a living corpse?
Start up the copy machines in Newark. It will take lots of Democrat phony ballots if the election is that close.
I hope they do, but I’m not sure the Republicans have enough brains to figure out that nice guys finish last.
As long as a candidate has a (D) after his name, he could be an ax murderer and win in NJ.
**Zimmer, a former U.S. congressman who is running as a fiscal conservative**
Come on, Republicans. Throw out Lautenberg.
Living here ... one of his ads just reeked of how sleazy he is. He had the sleaze look. It was supposed to portray him s smooth - pure sleaze.
How many times will DOPES vote Lousenberg in again?
LOL!
You’re right.
Isn’t he 91?
Last time around they had to CHANGE THE LAW to get him in. He didn’t debate anyone either because he can’t. He’s a total imbecile.
We would, but we are only allowed to vote once each. That's a huge disadvantage in The Garden State.
By October Lautenberg will be behind in the polls and will withdraw citing health concerns. The Dems will go to court to either, 1) substitute another popular Democrat, or 2) get a stay on the election until a suitable Democrat has been found.
Actually, they didn't change the law. They just ignored it. Torricelli was the original dem candidate, and he was caught taking bribes and being involved in so much corruption that even the dem voters in NJ were not going to vote for him. He was so far behind in the polls that the party bigwigs forced him to resign and replaced him with Lautenberg, even though the time period for doing so had long since passed. The NJ Supremes, who make the Florida Supremes look like Scalia and Thomas, allowed the last-minute switch, claiming that NJ voters should not be deprived of having a choice. So, the morons in my home state said, "Sure, why not?" and voted overwhelmingly for Lautenberg.
Also, a lot of tycoons benefit from their own style of government largesse through federal grants, etc. The American people, whatever, will never figure out what is happening.
Yes, people in NJ can’t “hep” it — they have been big government junkies for as long as one can remember.
Actually, they didn’t change the law. They just ignored it. Torricelli was the original dem candidate, and he was caught taking bribes and being involved in so much corruption that even the dem voters in NJ were not going to vote for him. He was so far behind in the polls that the party bigwigs forced him to resign and replaced him with Lautenberg, even though the time period for doing so had long since passed. The NJ Supremes, who make the Florida Supremes look like Scalia and Thomas, allowed the last-minute switch, claiming that NJ voters should not be deprived of having a choice. So, the morons in my home state said, “Sure, why not?” and voted overwhelmingly for Lautenberg.
Yes, you’re right. Head gets foggy now and then.
It’s sickening. We’re not native to NJ and hoping to LEAVE.
I don’t think the polls canvassing has reached the graveyards.
But for some reason they rejected HHH in 1968 and GA Jimmy in 1976.
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