N.J. voters would pick Obama over Christie in presidential race, poll says

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President Obama (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT) would lead Gov. Chris Christie among N.J. residents (Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger) in a presidential race, a poll found.

TRENTON — If Gov. Chris Christie ran for president in 2012, he would lose to President Barack Obama in New Jersey, according to a Rasmussen poll released today.

The poll found 49 percent would back Obama and 44 percent would support Christie with the remaining 8 percent unsure or supporting another candidate, the conservative-leaning polling firm found. The poll asked 500 likely New Jersey voters yesterday and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

If the nominee were former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, the poll found nearly identical results, with 49 percent supporting Obama and 43 percent Romney.

The poll found that 53 percent of voters either approve or strongly approve of the job Obama is doing as president. The poll also found 53 percent approve of Christie's job as governor. In other polls conducted in the state, Christie has recently seen a drop in approval numbers.

The poll found New Jerseyans don't have a rosy picture of the economy.

Fifty percent responded that the rate of current economy is "poor" and 41 percent think it's getting worse. But 32 percent think the economy is getting better and 22 percent think it's staying the same.

A plurality, 49 percent, think the federal government will go bankrupt and be unable to pay it's debt before the federal budget is balanced. New Jerseyans also gave Obama negative marks for his handling of "the national budget crisis," with 41 percent saying "poor" and only 14 percent saying "excellent."

Locally, those polled said overwhelmingly that the bigger problem facing the state, when asked to choose between voters being unwilling to pay enough taxes or politicians being unable to control spending, was the former.

Also, when asked how Gov. Christie is "handling the New Jersey budget crisis" a plurality, 35 percent, said "poor." Of those polled, 24 percent said "excellent," 22 percent said "good" and 18 percent said "fair."