The candidates in the race for Governor in New Jersey are making their final efforts to convince voters to vote for them, as early voting ends in New Jersey on Sunday. NBC New York’s Brian Thompson reports.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy holds a nine-point lead over Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli in two new polls for next week's election, solidifying his bid to be the first Democrat re-elected to the office since 1977.
Murphy leads Ciattarelli 53-44 in a Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll released Friday and 50-41 in a Stockton University poll released Thursday. Those results follow a Monmouth Poll from Wednesday that had Murphy ahead by 11 points.
Taken together, they suggest a good chance the incumbent governor can win next week after a hard-fought and negative campaign.
Since Brendan Byrne won a second term in 1977, there have been four Democrats elected to a first term as governor of New Jersey, including Murphy - but none re-elected to a second. (Three Republicans have won second terms over that period.)
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“It’s not impossible to close a nine-point gap in the polls,” Dan Cassino, executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson poll, said in a statement. “But partisans are remaining stable, the independents are moving against Ciattarelli, with many people already having voted, it seems like it is too late to turn things around.”
