President Posts Worst Marks Ever for Garden State

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Tabular Results
Survey Details
Republican Response
Democratic Response

Just 24% of New Jersey's registered voters say the country is headed in the right direction, a new low in the presidency of George W. Bush according to the most recent results of Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind Poll. Meanwhile, 65% of Garden State voters say the country is on the wrong track, a new high in the Bush presidency. Four of five (83%) Democratic voters say the country is on the wrong track as well as three-quarters (75%) of independent voters, along with 38% of Republicans.

Likewise, 44% of Garden State voters rate the president's job performance as “poor,” the highest percentage in the past 5½ years, while just 7% rate the president's job performance as “excellent,” the lowest number of his presidency. In all, 70% rate the president's job performance as “poor” or “only fair,” while just 29% rate his performance as “good” or “excellent.”

“Poor presidential performance ratings naturally follow the publics' pessimism about Iraq as well as nervousness about gas prices and the economy,” said Peter Woolley, director of the poll.

Just 39% conclude the US military effort in Iraq is going fairly or very well, a record low since military action began in March 2003. In all, 58% say the effort is going “not too well” or “not well at all,” a figure which has remained relatively stable in PublicMind surveys over the past year. But a new high of 30% of voters say the military action is going “not well at all.”

A gender gap in perception looms large on national questions as just 18% of women say the country is on the right track, while nearly a third of men (31%) say it is, but 59% of men say the country is on the wrong track as do 71% of women. Similarly, three quarters of women (74%) rate the president's job performance as “only fair” or “poor” compared to two-thirds of men (66%).

Meanwhile, the erosion in Bush's support continues even among his conservative base. The most recent results show that even half of conservatives (50%) rate the president's job performance as “only fair” or “poor,” along with three-quarters (78%) of moderates and more than nine of ten (91%) liberals.

The PublicMind poll of 675 randomly selected registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone from Monday, July 10 through Sunday night July 16 and has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Contacts:

Contacts: Peter Woolley 973.670.3239; Dan Cassino 973.896.7072

Radio actuality line: (201) 692-2846.

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