Beleaguered McGreevey regains ground with voters

Governor McGreevey’s popularity has shown resilience despite a recent barrage of allegations about those close to him, according to a poll commissioned by The Record.

A month of bad publicity had only a limited impact on likely voters, who rate McGreevey’s performance better than they did last fall. Of the voters surveyed, 42 percent found McGreevey’s performance “good” or “excellent,” an improvement of seven percentage points from November, when the last Record poll was taken …

… Although the public has a generally tepid view of McGreevey as a leader and a candidate for reelection, the Republicans would need an exceptional candidate to defeat him at this point, said pollster Del Ali.

“If this is the zenith of the story, that’s good news for McGreevey,” said Ali, whose firm, Research 2000 of Rockville, Md., conducted the poll. “These aren’t good numbers to have, but if this is the low-water mark, he has a chance to correct them.”

Asked whether they would vote to reelect the governor, likely voters were ambivalent. Thirty-eight percent said they would, while 36 percent said they would rather replace him. An additional 22 percent said they would consider voting for another candidate.

“I would say he’s vulnerable,” Ali said. “He’s got work to do.”

The telephone survey of 600 likely voters from across the state was taken from Monday through Wednesday. Its margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

North Jersey Media Group