Poll: Christie leads Clinton nationwide

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) leads former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) in a hypothetical 2016 matchup, according to a new poll out Tuesday.

The survey, from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, gives Christie 45 percent support among registered voters nationwide to Clinton’s 42 percent support.

That result tracks closely with the outcome of a survey of Iowa voters out this week, which gave Christie a 5-point lead over Clinton.

Clinton leads every other potential Republican presidential contender, but they all keep that lead to single digits, with Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush down by 5 points, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is down by 8 points.

Clinton is the only potential Democratic presidential contender that keeps Christie’s lead down to single digits, however — every other Democrat tested trails him by anywhere from 11 to 22 points.

Christie’s advantage lies primarily in his crossover appeal. He draws 12 percent of Democrats and leads Clinton with independents, 49-26 percent, while a quarter remain undecided.

Clinton also ties or loses every age group past 30 years old to Christie. She maintains strong support among the constituencies that elected President Obama, however, including young voters, blacks and Hispanics.

Both Clinton and Christie lead their respective primary fields, Christie with 19 percent support and Clinton with 66 percent support.

Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee come in close behind Christie in a Republican primary, trailing him by 5 and 6 percentage points with Republican primary voters, respectively.

Still, the most popular Republican tested is Huckabee, who enjoys a favorable rating from 65 percent of Republican primary voters polled.

The survey was conducted among 1,316 registered voters from Dec. 12-15, and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. PPP also surveyed 600 GOP primary voters and 453 Democratic primary voters from Dec. 13-15.

December 18, 2013

“Christie leads both Democratic and GOP fields

PPP’s newest look ahead to the 2016 race for President finds just how strong Hillary Clinton is relative to other potential Democratic candidates.

Clinton narrowly trails Chris Christie right now in a hypothetical match up at 45/42. That’s owing largely to a 49/26 advantage among independent voters. We also tested four other potential Democratic candidates against Christie though, and they would all trail him by double digits. John Kerry has an 11 point deficit against Christie at 46/35, Joe Biden is down 14 at 49/35, Elizabeth Warren trails by 16 at 49/33, and Howard Dean would lag by 22 at 51/29.

Christie’s the strongest candidate for President right now because he’s viewed favorably across party lines. He’s at 48/26 with Republicans, 46/28 with independents, and 38/36 with Democrats. Clinton would start out ahead of all the other potential GOP candidates we tested against her on this poll- she’s up 5 on Jeb Bush and Rand Paul at 48/43, 6 on Mike Huckabee at 48/42, and 8 on Ted Cruz at 49/41.

In addition to being the strongest general election Christie also leads the Republican field. He gets 19% to 14% for Ted Cruz, 13% for Mike Huckabee, 11% for Rand Paul, 10% for Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan, 7% for Marco Rubio, 4% for Scott Walker, and 3% for Bobby Jindal.

Christie leads the field both with moderates (he gets 32% to 12% for Paul and 10% for Ryan), and voters identifying as ‘somewhat conservative’ (he gets 17% to 16% for Huckabee, 14% for Bush, and 11% each for Cruz and Ryan.) Cruz leads with ‘very conservative’ ones, getting 23% to 15% for Paul, 14% for Huckabee, 12% for Christie, and 10% for Ryan.

Huckabee actually has the highest favorability of the Republicans we tested, at 65/14. But only 20% of those with a positive opinion of him say he’d be their first choice for President. By contrast Christie only has a 47/29 favorability rating, but 37% who have a positive view of him also support him for President. There’s a greater intensity among those who do have a favorable opinion.

If you take Huckabee out of the equation Christie’s support increases to 23% with Cruz at 15%, Bush and Paul at 12%, Ryan at 11%, Rubio at 8%, Walker at 6%, and Jindal at 4%.

There continues to be no challenge to Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. We threw Howard Dean and John Kerry into the equation for the first time this month but Clinton still gets 66% to 10% for Joe Biden, 6% for Elizabeth Warren, 2% each for Cory Booker, Andrew Cuomo, Dean, Kerry, and Martin O’Malley, and 1% for Brian Schweitzer. Clinton is at 58% or more with liberals, moderates, men, women, whites, African Americans, Latinos, seniors, and young voters.

If you take Clinton out of the mix Biden would still be the front runner even if Kerry and Dean were in the field. He gets 35% to 13% for Kerry and Warren, 7% for Booker and Cuomo, 4% for Dean and O’Malley, and 1% for Schweitzer. Warren leads a field where the other big names stay out with 24% to 14% for Cuomo, 13% for Booker, 7% for O’Malley, and 2% for Schweitzer.

Full results here, Republican results here, Democratic results here”

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/12/christie-leads-both-democratic-and-gop-fields.html

This is just the beginning of the Whisper Campaign.

For four years all we hear was Romney Frontrunner, Romney FrontRunner, Romney FrontRunner.

It gets the name into people’s heads and then when election time rolls around, they want to vote for who “can win” and the establishment lines up all the key endorsements to cement their self-fulfilled prophecy.

Not a single one of us wanted Romney. We supported literally everybody but him. But Romney it was to be and the people be damned.

The same thing is happening here with Christie.

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