Christie vs. Booker – Who Gets Your Vote? [POLL]

We haven’t even gotten past the presidential election, but already we’re looking to 2013.

Well, I’m not, actually. It’s all the fault of the good folks at Qunnipiac University, who’ve just released a poll of likely matchups in the 2013 Governor’s race.

According to their latest data, Governor Chris Christie is well-positioned for a 2013 re-election bid…by a margin of 52 to 40 percent.

However should he face a challenge by Newark Mayor Cory Booker…things could get very interesting.

According to this:

Governor Christie is well-positioned against potential opponents if he seeks re-election next year, but Newark Mayor Cory Booker would make it a race, according to a Qunnipiac University poll released today.

New Jersey voters say Christie, a Republican, deserves re-election by a 52 percent to 40 percent margin. In a head-to-head matchup with Booker, a Democrat, Christie leads 46 percent to 42 percent.

Against state Sen. Richard Codey of Essex County, a potential candidate who served as acting governor after Gov. Jim McGreevey’s resignation in 2004, Christie leads 47 percent to 41 percent. State Sen. Barbara Buono of Middlesex County trails Christie 49-33 percent, and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald of Camden County trails 50-31 percent.

Christie has not said if he will seek re-election, but he also is expected to move into the leadership of the Republican Governors Association in 2014 — a post that would require him to be a Republican governor that year — and has made several trips outside the state this fall to help GOP gubernatorial candidates raise money.

Booker also has not said if he will run, but he reached out to party leaders from around the state at the Democratic National Convention last month to lay a foundation if he does enter the race. He also has a national fund-raising operation that could compete with the amounts Christie could raise, and is seen as a favorite of Washington Democrats who might want to see Christie defeated.

In my view, the Dems, in desperate need of star power, would probably opt for a challenger like Booker, who’s won national prominence as the platform speaker in this past summer’s Democratic National Convention…over the usual cast of characters like State Senate President Steve Sweeney, former Governor Dick Codey, State Senator Barbara Buono, etc.

And given their track record of seeking “star power”…look where that got them last time. Imploring then Senator Jon Corzine to run for Governor instead of having the gregarious former Acting Governor Codey as the party’s standard bearer.

How'd that work out for them?