Thomas H. Kean hasn’t been governor for more than 34 years, but New Jerseyans old enough to remember him do so fondly, a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll found.
The FDU poll asked people who were old enough to vote when nine former New Jersey governors were in office whether they did a good job or not.
Kean’s numbers are off the charts: 86% of the state’s voters said he did a good job as governor, and just 14% think he did a bad job. Among Republicans, Kean is at 95%; he’s at 74% among Democrats.
“Kean was popular when he was in office and remains popular now,” said Dan Cassino, the director of the FDU poll. “His role as kind of an elder statesman for the 9-11 commission has also certainly helped burnish his reputation.”
The sample size of the poll included 258 voters who were born before 1972.
A former Assembly Speaker, Kean was elected governor in 1981 by the narrowest margin in state history, 1,797 votes statewide against Democrat Jim Florio; seeking re-election four years later, Kean set the record for the biggest landslide New Jersey has ever seen: 70% of the vote and a 794,229-vote plurality.
The former governor with the poorest good job/bad job rating is also the most unpopular governor – not including William Franklin, who sided with King George III during the American Revolution: Chris Christie. He’s upside-down at 40%-60%. Just 29% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans think he did well when he served as governor from 2010 to 2018.
Brendan Byrne, who battled low approval ratings for most of his time as governor (1974 to 1982) and still managed to get re-elected, has a 63%-37% good job/bad job rating and is at 88% among Democrats. The sample size was 137 New Jersey voters who were born before 1956.
Nearly half of New Jerseyans born before 1976 (48%) view Jim Florio, a one-term governor, favorably. Florio is at 75% among Democrats.
The Republican who ousted Florio, Christine Todd Whitman, is at 52%-48% on the good job/bad job meter. She’s at 55% good job among Democrats and 54% among Republicans.
One week after Whitman resigned as governor in 2001 to join President George W. Bush’s cabinet as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Jerseyans gave Whitman a 56%-35% approval rating of how she handled her seven years as governor, a Quinnipiac University poll showed.
The poll also had some good news for former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who is seeking to return to public office next year as a candidate for mayor of Jersey City.
More than seven in ten Democrats (72%) say that McGreevey did a good job. The state’s second-largest city has over 95,000 registered Democrats.
Jon Corzine, one of two New Jersey governors to lose a general election bid for a second term, is at 41%-59%; among Democrats, he’s at 73%.
Richard Codey, who was governor from 2004 to 2006, is at 58%-42%, and 79% among Democrats. Donald DiFrancesco, the governor from 2001 to 2002, is at 44%-56% and 58% among Republicans.
The poll was conducted between April 1 and 9, and the sample size and margin of error vary with respondents’ age.