Does NJ support these leaders? Your turn to see if your views match poll results

TRENTON – Results from the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll show opinions of Gov. Phil Murphy are rebounding after a spring slump.

(Scroll down for an interactive spin through the poll questions. And if you don't want to be spoiled by seeing a few of the results, click 'page down' or scroll down quickly a couple of times to skip the next five paragraphs.)

In Eagleton’s March survey, Murphy’s favorability rating – a measurement of how residents view him personally – was a net negative for the first time in his term: 33% had a favorable impression, and 38% had an unfavorable one. The new poll finds him at a net positive of 14 points, 47% to 33%.

Rutgers-Eagleton Poll director and assistant research professor Ashley Koning said that as pandemic fatigue wears off with restrictions lifted, public dissatisfaction has eased in general. The distance from last year's gubernatorial election also matters, she said.

“Gov. Murphy’s favorability rating after taking a hit last spring has inched up, this increase driven mostly because of positivity among Democrats and independents by double digits,” Koning said.

“We see more of a sense of a return to normal, both in everyday life and in governing getting back to kind of the typical issues that we deal with on a daily basis, with pandemic becoming more and more in the background,” she said.

Assessments of Murphy’s job performance hadn’t dipped quite as much in the spring so had a smaller rebound now. The poll found 54% of residents approve of the job he’s doing, while 37% disapprove, up from the +3 net in the March poll, when the result was 49% to 46%.

Michael Symons is the Statehouse bureau chief for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at michael.symons@townsquaremedia.com

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.