According to a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll that was conducted in mid-to-late December but only publicly released today, indicted U.S. Senator Bob Menendez remains deeply unpopular among New Jersey voters of all demographics. The poll was in the field from December 13 through December 23, meaning that several new developments in the federal corruption case against Menendez are not reflected in its numbers.
Among all registered voters, Menendez’s favorability rating is just 9%, while 64% said they had an unfavorable view of the senator – numbers that are slightly better for Menendez than in Rutgers-Eagleton’s November poll. Democrats and non-white respondents were slightly more likely to say that they viewed Menendez favorably, but even among those groups Menendez’s rating is still just 13% and 14%, respectively.
The poll also asked respondents for their thoughts on Gov. Phil Murphy and a variety of candidates competing in the 2024 race for U.S. Senate and the 2025 race for the governor’s office. The poll’s numbers should be approached with substantial caution, however, since they were collected so long ago; more than a month’s worth of campaigning has happened in the interim.
Murphy, a Democrat who will be term-limited out of office in two years, posts a favorability rating of 46%-37%, which is in keeping with other polling that finds the governor popular but not overwhelmingly so. The governor is at 74%-8% among his fellow Democrats, 14%-70% among Republicans, and 40%-35% among independents.
Many of the candidates vying to replace Murphy in 2025, meanwhile, are all still largely unknown even within their own parties.
On the Democratic side, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop has a favorability score of 17%-5% among Democrats – the relevant group right now, given that Fulop will have to win a competitive Democratic primary to become governor. Former State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), meanwhile, is at a more neutral 13%-13% among Democrats.
As for Republicans, Jack Ciattarelli is broadly well-liked by his own party after being the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in 2021, but many of those who may have once supported him seem to have forgotten him since then; he has a favorability rating of 40%-7% among Republicans, with 32% of Republicans and 37% of registered voters saying they don‘t know who he is. State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), who will enter the race this weekend, is much less known and has an 11%-11% favorability ratio among Republicans.
“Despite their prominent roles in New Jersey politics, Bramnick, Ciattarelli, Fulop, and Sweeney are mostly unknown to New Jerseyans,” Eagleton Center research associate Jessica Roman said in a release accompanying the poll. “And we still have to go through multiple other elections until the 2025 gubernatorial begins to heat up and voters start paying attention.”
Not tested by the poll were a number of other prospective gubernatorial candidates, such as Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) and conservative radio host Bill Spadea.
Poll respondents were also asked for their thoughts on the two leading candidates to replace Menendez in the U.S. Senate, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and First Lady Tammy Murphy. (Other Senate candidates, including Democrats Patricia Campos-Medina and Larry Hamm and Republican Christine Serrano Glassner, were not tested.)
Both Kim and Murphy both post solidly positive ratings among Democrats: 31%-4% for Kim, 29%-9% for Murphy, relatively similar to their ratings in November. But since the poll data is from so long ago, those numbers may not be especially reflective of the current state of the fast-moving race.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll was conducted from December 13-23 with a sample size of 1,657 adults and a margin of error of +/- 2.8%. The poll numbers featured in this story, however, come from a smaller subsample of 826 adults.