In the latest sign that President Barack Obama could be facing an uphill battle in his campaign for re-election, the results of a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday showed that the president's job approval rating has hit a record low in Democratic-leaning New Jersey.
The poll found that a record low 44 percent of New Jersey voters approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president compared to a record high 52 percent that disapprove.
The latest results represent a significant turnaround from a survey conducted in June, when 50 percent approved of Obama's job performance and 46 percent disapproved.
Forty-nine percent of New Jersey voters also said that Obama does not deserve to be reelected compared to the 45 percent that said he does deserve to be reelected.
Nonetheless, Obama still has a 45 percent to 37 percent lead over an unnamed Republican challenger in the 2012 presidential race.
New Jersey has been won by the Democratic presidential candidate in each of the last five elections. President George H. W. Bush was the last Republican to win the state in 1988.
The Quinnipiac poll also found that New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie has stopped a recent slide in his approval rating.
The poll showed that 47 percent of New Jersey voters approve of the way Christie is handling his job as governor compared to 46 percent that disapprove. In a June survey, 44 percent approved of Christie's job performance, while 47 percent disapproved.
The survey of 1,624 registered New Jersey voters was conducted from August 9th through 15th and has a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points.
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