Posted on 08/22/2018 10:10:31 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez (D) is facing a tightening race as he seeks to hold onto his Senate seat in the November elections, according to a new poll.
Menendez leads his Republican challenger Bob Hugin by just 6 points, 43 to 37 percent, in a Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday.
Mendendez previously held a 17-point lead, 49 to 32 percent, in a March survey conducted by Quinnipiac University.
The latest poll shows a racial gap between the candidates’ supporters. Hugin leads among white voters at 47 percent to Menendez’s 38 percent. Meanwhile, Menendez is supported by 51 percent of non-white voters while Hugin holds 18 percent.
Republicans back Hugin more heavily than Democrats support Menendez. Eighty-five percent of Republicans said they would vote for Hugin, while 74 percent of Democrats said they backed Menendez.
Independents are split almost evenly between the two, with 37 percent supporting Hugin and 33 percent backing Menendez.
Menendez was cleared of federal corruption charges in January, but the poll shows that the probe still hangs over him in voters' minds.
Forty-nine percent of New Jersey voters said Menendez was involved in serious wrongdoing, while 16 percent said that is not the case. Among Democrats, 38 percent said he was involved in serious wrongdoing while 25 percent said he did not.
Overall, more voters than not disapprove of the two-term New Jersey Democrat, with 47 percent of those polled disapproving of the incumbent and 40 percent approving.
Hugin is less well known in the state, with a majority of respondents, 54 percent, saying they had not heard enough about the Republican. Of those who expressed an opinion, 24 percent viewed him favorably and 20 percent viewed him unfavorably.
Twenty-five percent of voters said that ethics in government was the most important issue in their decision of who to elect as senator in November, followed by 22 percent who cited taxes, 19 percent health care, 14 percent immigration and 14 percent the economy.
Voters’ approval for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in the poll rose from 44 percent approval in March to 54 percent approval now. President Trump, meanwhile, earned a heavily negative approval rating at 33 percent to 63 percent.
Republicans currently hold a slim 51-49 seat majority in the Senate, while Democrats this year are defending 10 seats in states Trump won in 2016.
Menendez's seat was rated earlier this month by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report as "likely" to stay Democratic in the fall.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 908 New Jersey voters over the phone from Aug. 15-20. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.
wasn’t he accused of a crime not long ago?
NM- i missed the line abotu the crime lol
Please be a bellweather
menendez was just polishing up his credentials. Expect a re-election by a landslide.
Yeah but don’t ya know, when Dems are accused of crimes the left says “HEY THATS DIFFERENT”
Yeah he was, and it was rarely mentioned in the news. Democrats in court facing federal corruption charges is not news for the statists. His federal trial ended up with a hung jury, and the Feds elected not to retry Menendez dismissing the charges.
Prosecutors established that Menendez used his office to promote the personal and financial interests of Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye doctor. He asked the State Department to intervene in Melgen's favor in a port dispute with the Dominican Republic. He also helped secure visas for a few of Melgen's girlfriends.
Prosecutors also established that Melgen provided lavish vacations, flights on a private jet and $600,000 in political contributions to Menendez. The story of the underaged hookers involved was left out of the trial.
The jury accepted these facts, but was unable to reach a verdict, saying that prosecutors failed to prove the first point was a direct result of the second point. The trial ended with a hung jury.
A month later Melgen was sentenced to 17 years in prison for Medicare fraud.
Menendez= “The creature of Epstein Island.”
Thank You- I couldn’t remember the details-
it’s unbelievable but likely true-
I hope the challenger has money. Our candidates should not lack for it.
A statewide Republican candidate needs to record at least 57% of the actual vote to win. Democratic fraud in major urban centers (Jersey City, Paterson, Passaic, Newark, Elizabeth, New Brunswick, Trenton and Camden as well as others) is perennial and cannot be stopped. In Paterson at one polling station fewer than 75 people were witnessed to vote. When the votes were counted over 800 were recorded for the Democrat, 20 for the Republican. Happens throughout the state. Republicans don’t even contest the results anymore. Superior Court judges mostly Democrat appointees claim there is no conclusive evidence to find fraud. Given the fraud and the changing demographics, forget about New Jersey. Suspect its a similar situation in NY, Illinois and California.
Yep- very frustrating watching the left get away with crimes time and time and time again- Seems like they always prosper while honest people suffer-
Scott + 6 latest poll
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/senate/fl/florida_senate_scott_vs_nelson-6246.html
Every election cycle we get sucked into high hopes for New Jersey that never work. Forget this.
No matter what the left does, they have something we will NEVER have, the media..once the left got control of the media there is nothing we could do, we live in a two tier justice system, for the left, they get away with EVERYTHING..for anyone on the right, automatic jail
I want to believe, but I am getting real déjà vu here. It feels like New Jersey does this Lucy-football polling thing every cycle, where they’re supposedly so close to electing a Republican as Governor or Senator, and it never actually happens.
Shockingly, the Senate races in IN, WV, MO, TN, ND, and MT... all states that Trump won by 19 points or more (WV was 42!)... are all still too close to call... and WV seems to be trending to Manchin (WV-D). The GOP should be working double Tim in these states for the next 11 wks!
PA, MI, and WI were all close Trump wins, but the Dem is polling ahead by 15+ in each.
(Ohio was Trump +8, but Shrrod Brown is still up 17 points at the moment. Grrr.)
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