Chris Christie’s constituents still overwhelmingly have his back, according to a new poll.
They still widely approve of the job he’s doing as governor, they consider him more of a leader than a bully and they dismiss the notion that he personally ordered a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge last summer.
By and large, the latest findings from Quinnipiac University released early Wednesday indicate that Christie has thus far weathered a political firestorm that’s engulfed his administration and generated national media coverage.
Quinnipiac’s poll showed that 55 percent of New Jersey voters still approve of Christie’s job performance, down from the astronomical numbers he boasted last summer but still an individual rating most politicians would envy.
Fifty-one percent said Christie is honest and trustworthy and 54 percent said they consider him to be a leader (compared with 40 percent who said he is more of a bully).
And while 62 percent said they believe Christie’s aides engineered the traffic jam as revenge against a mayor who didn’t endorse the governor for re-election, 66 percent said they don’t believe he personally ordered the traffic jam.
Half of voters said they believe Christie’s aides acted alone, while 41 percent said they think he was aware.
The findings mirror a poll released earlier this week from Monmouth University, which also indicated that much of the New Jersey public is still willing to give Christie the benefit of the doubt.
A survey from Pew found that, on a national level, Christie’s public standing hasn’t taken much of a hit from the scandal.
