Corzine pulls even in NJ

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) has pulled into a dead heat with his Republican opponent Chris Christie, a new Public Policy Polling survey shows. 

Christie garners 40% support, compared to 39% for Corzine. Independent candidate Chris Daggett gets 13%.

A month ago, Corzine trailed by nine. Here's PPP's analysis of the swing:

Corzine’s improvement is coming for two key reasons. The first is that he’s consolidating his share of the Democratic vote. Where a month ago he was getting 64% of the vote from within his party, he’s now earning 70%.

The other is that Christie is losing some Republicans and independents to Daggett. In September Christie had 79% of the Republican vote. That’s now 73% and over that same period of time Daggett has gone from 7% to 13% with GOP voters. Among independents Corzine’s position is basically unchanged from a month ago. But Christie’s dropped from 48% to 42% with independents with Daggett improving from 16% to 19%.

By a margin of 48-34 Daggett voters say that Christie would be their second choice. That 14 point lead with 13% of the electorate means that the independent is basically costing the Republican nominee two points on the margin, something that could make the difference in a close election.