James and Booker are Complementary Images

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Tabular Results
Survey Details

Sixty-one percent of Garden State voters say they have heard of Sharpe James, the 20-year veteran mayor of Newark, the state's largest city.  According the most recent results from Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind, only 33% say they've heard of Corey Booker, the quadrennial challenger to James and the favorite to become mayor since the incumbent James dropped out of the race.

Among those who say they know Sharpe James, nearly half (48%) have an unfavorable opinion, while just one in five (20%) say they have a favorable opinion, and a third (32%) are unsure.

“After 20 controversial years as Mayor of the state's largest city, Sharpe James leaves office unknown to a third of the state's electorate and unacceptable to another third,” said Rick Thigpen, a former executive director of the New Jersey Democratic Party. “He did a pretty good job of getting known and had a pretty hard time being liked outside of Newark, where he reigned as the heavyweight political champion for a generation.  I suspect Sharpe would be more upset about how many don't know him versus how many don't like him.”

While only a third of voters statewide say they've heard of Booker, many of them have a positive view. Half of those (50%) who say they've heard of Booker also say they have a favorable opinion of him, while just 1 in 10 (10%) say they have an unfavorable view. “In many ways Booker is the opposite of James,” said Thigpen. “He's a new, professional breed of urban manager.”

“Booker enters the statewide political stage in pretty good shape,” said Thigpen. “His very high, Codey-level favorable-to-unfavorable ratio indicates a strong start that could turn him into something special.  His strong crossover appeal to white voters, makes him an African-American politician with a chance to break the political glass ceiling.”

“No African-American has ever been elected to statewide office in New Jersey,” added Thigpen, “and only one has even made it to the Congressional level (and that didn't happen until a Congressional District was created with a clear majority of voting age African-Americans). And New Jersey has not elected a governor from Newark in over a hundred years.  That's a one-two punch that would even give Joe Frazier cause to pause.”

“The question,” said Thigpen, “is whether Booker will become a strong advocate for Newark and also successfully follow the trail blazed by Ed Rendell who went from urban mayor to statewide officeholder in Pennsylvania. It will be interesting to see whether Booker's high statewide favorability ratings survive the formidable challenges of governing Newark. If you take into account racial politics, the journey from Newark City Hall to Trenton is a bigger leap than moving up from Double A ball to the majors.”

The PublicMind poll of 685 registered voters was conducted from March 27 through April 2 and has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Contacts:

Contacts: Peter Woolley 973.670.3239, Rick Thigpen 609.394.0888.

Radio actuality line: (201) 692-2846.

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