Politics & Government
FDU Poll Shows Booker with Commanding Lead in Senate Race
Newark mayor trounces Fox News personality and possible Republican challenger Geraldo Rivera, am Fairleigh Dickinson poll finds
Prospective U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker got only a slight bump following incumbent Frank Lautenberg’s announcement last month that he would not seek re-election in 2014, but the mayor of Newark still leads the field of Senate hopefuls by a wide margin, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll shows Booker with about 50 percent support in matchups against fellow Democrats Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, who are both members of Congress. Pallone and Holt polled just 4 and 7 percent respectively. Nearly a third of respondents, 32 percent, remained undecided in an election that’s still a year and a half away.
“Senator Lautenberg’s formal announcement that he won’t seek reelection in 2014 has definitely opened the door for those aspiring to his seat. Although it’s early and we are more than one year away from the Democratic primary, Booker’s early lead will be helpful in attempts to raise money and rally the party behind his candidacy,” Krista Jenkins, director of PublicMind and professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said in a statement accompanying the poll.
Booker, now in his second term as mayor, has already said he will not seek a third term in city hall. He has also said he will not formally declare his candidacy for the Senate until after New Jersey’s gubernatorial election in November.
Booker trounces the Republican competition at this point, the poll also found. Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera has expressed an interest in the Senate seat but was endorsed by just 26 percent of respondents versus the 52 percent who would support Booker in a matchup between the two men.
The statewide poll of 702 registered voters reached on cell phones and landlines was conducted between March 4 and March 10. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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