Poll: Even with Christie as VP, Romney would lose New Jersey

Mitt Romney would lose to President Obama in New Jersey even if Gov. Chris Christie (R) ends up on the ticket, a new poll showed.

Obama had a 10-point lead on Romney in the Garden State, and with Christie as Romney's running mate, Obama still leads 49-43, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Adding Christie to the ticket doesn't affect all groups equally. Male voters would vote for Romney 51-43 with Christie on the ticket, but the fortunes are reversed among women, who would choose Obama by a margin of 20 points.

Christie has endorsed Romney and appeared with him repeatedly on the campaign trail. But three in four New Jersey voters said Christie's endorsement of Romney makes no difference in their decision about whether to support him, compared to just 18 percent who said it makes them more likely to vote Romney.

The numbers suggest the excitement Christie generates among Republicans nationally might not translate to increased support for candidates tied to him in his home state. But Christie, to whom many in the GOP are already looking for a potential 2016 bid, remains popular in the state with a 55 percent approval rating.

Romney is the clear favorite among GOP hopefuls in New Jersey, besting Santorum there by 16 points among Republican primary voters. Obama would sweep Santorum there 52-34 if the former Pennsylvania senator were the nominee, and Gingrich would lose to Obama by 25 points.

The poll also showed that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has a 15-point lead over state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-N.J.), the expected GOP nominee to take him on in the fall. That's in the same realm as a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Tuesday that had Menendez up 22 points on Kyrillos, a close ally of Christie.

The poll of 1,396 voters was conducted Feb. 21-27 and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

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