Christie sliding in polls as N.H. primary nears
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appears to be sliding, rather than climbing, as the crucial New Hampshire primary approaches.
A handful of polls conducted this week suggest Christie may be losing ground after the Iowa caucus as Tuesday's vote nears. The latest, released Friday morning, is an NBC/Wall Street Journal Marist poll that finds him at 4%, a level to which he hasn’t dipped in the state since before Thanksgiving, until the last few days.
Christie's showing in that poll is the same as in a CNN/WMUR tracking poll released Thursday. That poll included just 209 people who said they plan to vote in the Republican primary, giving it a large margin of error of 6.8 percentage points. However, those results largely mirror those from other polls with larger sample sizes done this week:
• A UMass Lowell/7 News tracking poll done from Monday to Wednesday had Christie at 5%.
• An American Research Group tracking poll done Tuesday and Wednesday had Christie at 6%.
• A Harper Polling survey done Monday and Tuesday had Christie at 6%.
Christie had been averaging more than 10% in New Hampshire polls in December and early January, before super PACs supporting other candidates hit him with a barrage of negative television ads.
Christie has shrugged off the polls, noting that Donald Trump narrowly led Sen. Ted Cruz in the last group of polls before the Iowa caucus, which was won by Cruz.
“This has been a difficult race to poll and I know you guys are just obsessed with polls. You want them every day, you want to be able to question everything on polls,” Christie told ABC. “But the fact is you all were saying Donald Trump was a winner over the weekend, that he was definitely going to win the Iowa caucuses. And then it turns out he loses, so I'm just not going to get into that game with you.”
The latest New Hampshire polls show Trump ahead of the pack of nine remaining candidates. Sen. Marco Rubio generally runs second, slightly ahead of Cruz. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida governor Jeb Bush are then a few points behind them. Then comes Christie.
Christie acknowledged in an interview with the Washington Post that he’ll reassess the candidacy if he finishes behind Bush or Kasich in Tuesday’s primary.
“I’ve got to beat Jeb and Kasich here, and if I don’t beat Jeb and Kasich here, I have to think long and hard about whether I go forward or not,” Christie said.
Establishment Republican candidates are jockeying to keep Rubio, who finished close to Trump in a third-place finish in Iowa, from being seen as the consensus choice of the mainstream wing of the party. On Thursday, Christie’s campaign released an ad featuring former Sen. Rick Santorum, who quit the race and endorsed Rubio, unable to name one accomplishment by Rubio.
Christie was asked Thursday morning on MSNBC if it’s time for him, Bush and Kasich to get out of the race to get behind an alternative to Trump and Cruz.
“Who would that someone be? Someone who has never accomplished a thing in their career? Someone who has the exact same record as Barack Obama? Someone who has not done a thing in the United States Senate except skip votes because he says his votes don’t matter anymore? Why would I want to support that person?” Christie said.
Christie told Fox News it is “complete baloney” that senior aides to his and Bush’s campaigns have had back channel communications about halting Rubio’s rise, as reported by the New York Times.
Follow Michael Symons on Twitter: @MichaelSymons_