|
McGreevey leads, but half undecided
Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on 10/02/01
Democrat Jim McGreevey holds a lead of better than 2-1 in Hudson County over former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, but the majority of voters are still undecided, according to a poll done by New Jersey City University for The Jersey Journal.
The NJCU poll has McGreevey at 29.9 percent, Schundler at 13.7 percent and independent William Schluter at 1 percent in Hudson County. There are 55.3 percent undecided.
In the most recent statewide polls, taken last week by Quinnipiac University and the Eagleton Institute/Star Ledger, McGreevey held leads of 14 points and 15 points, respectively.
"The (NJCU) poll suggests the county is wide open as far as the governor's race goes," according to Dr. Fran Moran, of the political science department, and Dr. Bruce Chadwick, of the English department, the poll supervisors.
The Jersey Journal/New Jersey City University poll was conducted by the English and political science departments at the school. The results were computerized by Dr. Julio Guillen of the school's Center for Public Policy and Urban Research. Using randomly selected telephone numbers, 205 registered voters who live in Hudson County were questioned. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Schundler's strategy is to try to hold McGreevey to a plurality of less than 20,000 votes in Hudson County, a traditional Democratic stronghold. Schundler's three victories in elections for mayor of Jersey City were in nonpartisan contests. In 1997, McGreevey beat Gov. Christie Whitman in Hudson by 33,000 votes, a margin of almost 2-1.
Among Hudson voters, property taxes was rated the most important issue. The cost of auto insurance rated second, followed closely by education, crime and drugs.
"It should be noted, however, that many of those polled told our callers that all of the issues were important to them," Chadwick and Moran stated.
In a recent Eagleton statewide poll, education was rated the top issue.
"Our poll showed that property taxes were not only the number one complaint among seniors, but also the number one complaint of men and women ages 50 to 64 (42 percent), who rated it twice as important as the number two issue for them, insurance," the pollsters said.
"Traditionally, many women target education as their number one issue, but here, too, the number one choice of Hudson women is property taxes (28 percent), with education second."
The poll found that property taxes was the top issue among those earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year, as well as those earning more than $50,000. It was also the top issue across the board politically, with Democrats, Republicans and independents all ranking it first.
Among African-Americans, crime rated as the top issue (40 percent) while only 11 percent chose taxes.
"High property taxes in Hudson, always an issue, resonate even stronger in this election," Chadwick and Moran said.
Schundler and McGreevey have each stressed their records as mayors (McGreevey is mayor of Woodbridge). The poll found neither has gotten much advantage from that, so far.
Slightly more (25.3 percent) thought McGreevey, as governor, would do more for cities than Schundler (17.4 percent), but most (56.3 percent) said they didn't know at this point.
It also appears that the Schundler campaign may not get much of a boost locally from the sudden resignation of Bob Janiszewski as Hudson County executive and county Democratic chairman. He is now cooperating in a federal investigation of government corruption. More than two-thirds of the respondents (68.8 percent) said that would not affect their vote for governor.
|
