Menendez polls well against likely GOP rivals

Despite the political dominance of Republican Gov. Christie and the Democrats' loss of a New Jersey House seat last year, New Jersey remains a blue state, at least for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, according to a poll released by Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Menendez, who faces reelection in 2012, ran comfortably ahead of potential Republican rivals, including his 2006 opponent, Senate Minority Leader Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R., Union), and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

He would beat Kean by 44 percent to 34 percent and Guadagno by 47 percent to 26 percent, according to the poll.

The poll, released Monday, found that 35 percent of voters were unhappy with the direction of the country but 47 percent said they approved of President Obama.

Translated, that "means you have people who like Obama and support Obama despite the fact they don't think the country is going in the right direction," said Peter Woolley, director of the PublicMind poll.

Respondents gave Obama an approval rating of 47 percent to 41 percent.

Woolley said that Menendez and Obama "rode an anti-Republican tide into office" and that Republicans are hoping the nation's anti-Democratic tide will wash them away. Before Republicans can get their wish, he said, they need to field a candidate who can outpace Menendez.

Menendez "is not as very well-known as he should be," Woolley said.

Forty-four percent of Democrats in a November poll said they did not know who Menendez was or had no opinion of him, Woolley said. "That's pretty weak," he said.

And his reelection comes after a heady time for Republicans, during which Democrat Jon S. Corzine lost the governor's mansion to Christie in 2009 and U.S. Rep. John Adler (D., N.J.) lost to former Eagle Jon Runyan (R., N.J.) in South Jersey's Third District in 2010.

Menendez has plenty of time between now and when the Senate race heats up next year to make himself known to New Jersey voters, Woolley said. And Menendez is a prodigious fund-raiser. He spent the last year heading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, traveling across the country raising money for candidates, giving him access to an even broader fund-raising base.

His campaign consultant, Brad Lawrence, said Monday: "In the course of a campaign where tens of millions of dollars are spent, they will know him."

The poll of 802 registered voters between Jan. 3 and 9 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.