Christie stops job approval slide

HAMDEN, Conn., Aug. 17 (UPI) -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stopped a slide in his approval rating among voters while President Obama's approval was down, a Quinnipiac poll indicated.

Quinnipiac University Poll results released Tuesday indicate Christie had a 47 percent job approval rating from voters, his best showing in four months. Forty-six percent of respondents viewed him negatively.

Among Republicans, Christie's approval rating was 84 percent positive and 12 percent negative. Independent voters had a 53 percent positive to 39 percent negative rating, and Democrats disapproved of him 76 percent to 17 percent.

"The Ex-urbs and the Shore folks love [Gov. Christie]," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn. "He slips a little in the suburbs and falls behind in the cities and the Philadelphia suburbs as he inches himself back to the plus side."

Obama's approval rating fell among New Jersey voters, with 52 percent expressing disapproval and 44 percent approving the job Obama is doing, poll results indicated. The latest results were down from a 50 percent positive to 46 percent negative score in June.

By a 49 percent-to-45 percent margin, New Jersey voters said Obama doesn't deserve to be re-elected, the poll indicated. However, 45 percent said they would vote for Obama over an unnamed Republican challenger in the 2012 presidential race. Thirty-seven percent said they would vote for the generic GOP candidate.

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,624 registered voters conducted from Aug. 9-15. The margin of error is 2.4 percentage points.