The race for governor in New Jersey has been getting a lot of attention as Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli narrows the gap against his Democratic opponent, Mikie Sherrill. Sherrill remains in the lead in the Real Clear Politics average of polls by 4 points, but even the thought that a Republican could win in blue New Jersey must be ringing alarm bells in Democrat circles from D.C. to Hollywood. Joey Fox of the New Jersey Globe reports that a recent poll by a Ciattarelli PAC puts Sherrill at only a slight lead. He writes:
A new poll from a GOP super PAC aiding Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign for governor finds a close race – though Mikie Sherrill, Ciattarelli’s Democratic opponent, still holds a small lead.
According to the poll commissioned by Change NJ and conducted by KAConsulting, former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway’s polling firm, Sherrill leads Ciattarelli by a 47% to 44% margin. That’s slightly tighter than Conway’s prior publicly released poll from July, which had Sherrill up 47%-42%.
“Polls continue to show a tightening margin-of-error race between Jack Ciattarelli and Mikie Sherrill, and one thing is clear: Sherrill is on her heels and limping to the finish line as controversies surround her,” Conway said. “Ciattarelli has the momentum and enthusiasm going into the last days of the campaign.”
The polling memo further notes that Ciattarelli holds a small lead among unaffiliated voters (42%-39%), and that Ciattarelli is viewed by slightly more voters as the candidate who will “bring change to New Jersey” (41%-38%).
Action Line: Change is something New Jersey could use. The state frequently falls in amongst Your Survival Guy’s “Escape States,” which are the bottom ten ranked states in my annual Super States rankings. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
