Poll: Christie's approval rating spikes in New Jersey

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) approval rating has spiked to 72 percent following his handling of Hurricane Sandy, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.

The mark is the best any New Jersey governor has held in the pollster's decades of surveying the state. Christie, whose name has been mentioned frequently as a possible 2016 presidential candidate, first needs to win reelection as governor in 2013.

Just 21 percent disapprove of the job Christie is doing, and 95 percent say he's done an "excellent" or "good" job of responding to the storm, which devastated large portions of the state. Christie's approval rating was at 56 percent when Quinnipiac last polled the state, in mid-October, shortly before the hurricane.

Qunnipiac is the second pollster in as many days to find that Christie's approval ratings have jumped: A Farleigh Dickinson poll released Monday found him with a 77 percent approval rating.

Democrats are hopeful that Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) might challenge Christie for reelection, but polls like these could dissuade him and other top-tier Democrats from running against him.

The live-caller poll of 1,664 registered voters was conducted on landlines and cellphones from Nov. 19-25 and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.