FDU Poll: Governor Sherrill's Job Approval

Welcome back to New Jersey Now, and turning now to Governor Sherrill. Nine months into her administration, a new FDU poll finds that New Jersey voters are not quite sure how they feel about the first-term governor. What could it all mean as she heads into her second year in office? I'm back with the panel to discuss. So Dan, FDU has another poll out regarding the performance of Governor Sherrill. Please tell us more. Well, the big headline is that Governor Sherrill is still viewed very positively, you know, plus I think 16 points, 48% approve, 32% disapprove. But that is down pretty significantly from where she was earlier this year. In March, we had a 58% approval and no real difference with disapproval. The big change is in Democrats from the liberal side, the moderate side, progressives, all of them, we see that they are moving from approving of Governor Sherrill earlier in the year down to being more ambivalent, saying, I don't know. So they're not willing to say they disapprove, but they don't want to go so far as to say they approve. Now, this is perhaps understandable, because you can say, yeah, right after the election, people are more enthusiastic. But I think there is perhaps some sense of ambivalence or some sense of disagreement. When I've talked to progressives, especially, they say, we're looking at what Zohra Mamdani's doing, and, you know, we want that for us. We want to have policy actually go through. The progressives want to see stuff happen, and perhaps they're disappointed that Governor Sherrill hasn't given as much. The other part of it, we asked about approval of President Donald Trump, Trump, now approval in New Jersey of 28. At the same time, Brendan. Governor Sherrill has had to deal with some serious controversial issues, the protest at Delaney Hall, the resignation of Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell, the removal of up to 5,000 non-citizens from New Jersey voter rolls after it was found that more than 6,000 were registered. How do you think she's been dealing with this? I think she has done a very good job in handling what were three crises early in her administration. She showed leadership. She showed early decisiveness, and I think that's reflected even in these numbers that you see right now. I don't think those numbers are disturbing in any way. She's an incumbent governor. In a time where it's, you know, very difficult for incumbents. She's also in a state where we live in the two most expensive media markets in the country. And she right now has not been able to do any paid communication in the first year in her office. And unfortunately, the electorate does not rely as much as it once did on print and even online and digital media. So it's very difficult for New Jersey governors to cut across all the noise on their agenda as a general matter. So the idea that there's a slight drop in folks who, you know, just don't have an opinion on what she's doing right now is not. not something that surprises me, nor do I think it's something to be overly concerned about if I was looking at those numbers if I was her, because she's right side up in a lot of places that you want to be. She's still very popular within her own party. She's carrying pretty decent numbers among independent voters. And she remains, by and large, if you look at across all those numbers, in my opinion, an extremely popular first year governor of the state of New Jersey. Jeanette, House Republicans have subpoenaed Cheryl about this whole voter registration snafu. Is this a type of issue that can make any dent in any forward progress Cheryl supposedly is going to have? Well, it could if the public feels that Governor Cheryl is not being transparent, if they think there is a bigger scandal behind. non-citizens voting in New Jersey or if perhaps there's a close election and we dig a little deeper and perhaps some of these non-citizens have voted and there could be a recount or perhaps national media grabs onto this and it's a bigger issue. But you know right now I kind of agree with Brendan. These poll numbers are nothing to be afraid of. She was obviously going to come down from that very high number that she was right after the election. I actually I'm surprised that they're not lower. New Jersey is a very unaffordable place to live right now. The The electorate is very cranky. Everything is very nasty. And, you know, one of the things that she promised to lower our energy costs on day one, they really haven't calmed down. Like, I looked at my energy bill. It's not that great right now. And I think it's only going to get worse come this winter. So I think these poll numbers are actually going to get a little bit lower for Governor Sherrill. Now, Brent, you talk about the national picture trickling down to the local. You've got this situation going on in Alaska where New York Times comes out with an article saying the Democrats plotted to stack the ballot, switching over the name Dan S. Sullivan. Is the actual senator, Republican Senator of Alaska, there's a guy, Dan J. Sullivan, also on the ballot. So, if the governor wants an investigation. But wait, haven't we seen this in New Jersey before? I was just going to say, yeah, this seems like I'm just shocked it didn't happen somewhere along the turnpike. Yeah, I mean, there have been these kind of political games dating back to the 1700s, I'm sure. But it makes things more interesting, but also makes people shake their heads more. And it feeds into the narrative that politics isn't above board. But yeah, it definitely is not a shock, and it seems like something that should have happened here. Or could have happened here. Absolutely. Thank you, panel. We'll be right back.