FDU PublicMind - July 22, 2005 Release

Tables

Question: If the election for Governor of New Jersey were held right now, and you had to make a choice, which of the following …or … would you vote for?
[Rotate names]	All	Top priority should be…		Position on Abortion*		Position on Guns^#
	All	Property Taxes	Corruption	Pro- life	Pro- choice	Pro- owner- ship	Pro- control
	N=	(221)	(87)	(189)	(355)	(172)	(368)
Jon Corzine, the Democratic candidate	47%	44	44	35	55	30	56
Doug Forrester, the Republican candidate	34%	40	36	44	27	55	24
Unsure	16%	14	17	19	15	12	18
Other	3%	3	3	2	2	3	2

* “On the issue of abortion, would you describe yourself as …. or …?” [rotate: “pro-life” and “pro-choice”]

# “On the issue of guns, would you describe yourself as … or …?”[rotate: “pro-gun ownership” and “pro-gun control”]

Question: What issue do you think should be the top priority of candidates running for Governor this year?
Rotate list	All	Dem.	Ind.	Rep.	Men	Women
Property Taxes	37%	33	44	41	40	35
Corruption	15%	13	15	18	17	13
Health Care	13%	16	9	10	8	17
A Prosperous Economy	12%	14	8	10	11	12
Security from terror Attacks	8%	7	11	9	7	9
Suburban Sprawl and the Environment	5%	8	3	3	5	6
None of the above (vol.)	1%	0	0	1	1	0
other	7%	7	10	5	7	7
Don't know (vol.)	4%	3	0	4	5	3

Question: And what should be the next highest priority?
Rotate list	All	Dem.	Ind.	Rep.	Men	Women
Property Taxes	23%	24	23	23	24	23
Corruption	16%	12	23	19	17	15
Health Care	16%	18	16	13	14	18
Security from Terror Attacks	10%	11	6	11	9	11
A Prosperous Economy	14%	13	10	16	14	14
Suburban Sprawl and the Environment	8%	10	8	6	9	7
None of the above (vol.)	1%	1	0	2	2	1
Other (vol.)	7%	7	11	6	8	7
Don't know (vol.)	4%	3	3	4	5	3

Combined priority rank: highest priority + next highest priority
	Combined %	rank
Property Taxes	60	1
Corruption	30	2
Health Care	27	3
A Prosperous Economy	26	4
Security from Terror Attacks	19	5
Other (vol.)	14	6
Suburban Sprawl and the Environment	13	7
Don't know (vol.)	8	8
None of the above (vol.)	2	9

Table 3

Question: Which candidate for governor… or … is best described by…?
rotate names
Honest, trustworthy		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Jon Corzine	32	49	23	13
	Doug Forrester	23	8	24	44
	neither (vol)	12	12	15	11
	both (vol)	8	7	7	8
	don't know (vol)	25	24	32	24
Can get the job done for New Jersey?		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Jon Corzine	42	64	41	17
	Doug Forrester	27	9	22	52
	neither (vol)	6	3	12	8
	both (vol)	3	3	--	4
	don't know (vol)	21	21	26	20
Understands the concerns of the average person		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Jon Corzine	33	52	20	12
	Doug Forrester	28	10	24	52
	neither (vol)	15	10	19	19
	both (vol)	3	4	2	1
	don't know (vol)	22	23	36	16
Has the background and experience to be a good governor		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Jon Corzine	45	65	41	21
	Doug Forrester	21	7	9	44
	neither (vol)	8	4	14	11
	both (vol)	5	4	3	6
	don't know (vol)	21	20	33	18
Negative campaigner		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Jon Corzine	19	15	10	27
	Doug Forrester	26	35	26	15
	neither (vol)	12	8	18	15
	both (vol)	6	3	5	8
	don't know (vol)	38	39	42	35
Independent of the party bosses and large campaign contributors		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Jon Corzine	35	49	34	18
	Doug Forrester	23	13	14	40
	neither (vol)	12	8	16	15
	both (vol)	5	4	8	5
	don't know (vol)	25	27	27	22

Question: This November in New Jersey there will also be an election for the state assembly. If that election were held today, do you think you'd be voting for the … or …. candidates
rotate		All	Demo- crats	Indepen- dents	Republi- cans
	Republican	33%	5	22	71
	Democrat	43%	77	15	8
	Both/mixed (vol)	3%	3	10	3
	Neither (vol)	2%	2	9	1
	Don't know/unsure(vol)	18%	13	43	17

Question: How would you rate the job the state legislature in Trenton is doing is doing—excellent, good, only fair, or poor?
	All	Dem.	Ind.	Rep.	Men	Women	April 2005	April 2004
Excellent or Good	27%	30	20	23	25	28	20%	24%
Only Fair or Poor	65%	61	72	71	69	63	69%	62%
Don't know	8%	9	8	6	6	9	11%	14%

Question: Some people have suggested that the best way to keep property taxes under control is to make changes in the state constitution. How much have you read or heard about holding a Constitutional Convention that would propose changes to control property taxes…?
	All	Conserva- tives	Moder- ates	Liberals	Dem	Ind	Rep	All: Jan 05
Quite a lot	13%	17	12	10	13	17	12	7%
Some	15%	15	13	17	13	17	18	12%
A little	27%	26	29	30	27	29	27	26%
Nothing at all	42%	41	42	42	45	37	40	54%
Don't know (vol)	3%	2	4	2	2	--	2	1%

Question: Do you think it's a good idea or a bad idea for New Jersey to have a Constitutional Convention to try to deal with property taxes?
	All	Conserva- tives	Moder- ates	Liberals	Dem	Ind	Rep	All: Jan 2005
Good idea	57%	60	53	58	58	48	59	66%
Bad idea	25%	24	29	25	23	34	26	16%
Don't know (vol)	18%	16	18	17	18	18	16	18%

Question: Some people say a Constitutional Convention for New Jersey needs to focus only on taxes and should not get sidetracked dealing with other issues. Others say a Constitutional Convention should deal with issues that affect state spending as well as the property tax issue. Which comes closest to your position?
	All	Dem	Ind.	Rep.
Focus only on taxes	22%	24	18	21
Deal with other issues that affect state spending	66%	65	70	68
Don't know (vol)	10%	11	13	8

Contacts:
Rick Thigpen, academic associate, 609-394-0888.
Steve Salmore, research professor of political science: 973-292-3633.
Peter Woolley, coordinator: 973-443-8725

Radio actuality line: (201) 692-2846.

For more information, please call (201) 692-7032.

Table 3

rotate

All

Demo- crats

Republi- cans

Demo-
crats

Republi-
cans