Tom Kean Sr. was considered perhaps the most popular governor in New Jersey history when his final term ended in 1990.
Nearly 35 years later, not much has changed, according to a new poll.
Kean, a two-term Republican governor who starred in the famous “New Jersey and You, Perfect Together” tourism commercials, backed divestment in apartheid South Africa, and later chaired the 9/11 Commission, is considered New Jersey’s favorite governor, according to the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released Monday.
Kean is positively regarded by 86% of the poll respondents, with 95% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats saying he did a good job. Kean won bipartisan support in his 1985 re-election, still the biggest landslide in state history.
“Kean was popular when he was in office, and remains popular now,” poll director Dan Cassino said.
In second place at 63% was the governor who preceded Kean: two-term Democrat Brendan Byrne, who won re-election in 1977 after being lambasted for instituting the state income tax. His popularity grew after he was in office.
Next up at 58% was Democrat Richard Codey, who became governor following Jim McGreevey’s resignation in 2004 but did not run for election the following year. Codey in January retired as New Jersey’s longest-serving state lawmaker.
A total of 52% approved of Republican Christie Whitman and 48% approved of Democrat Jim Florio.
Past governors are often remembered more fondly than more recent ones, Cassino said. He also noted voters were less divided then.
“This isn’t just rose-colored glasses,” Cassino said. “Governors in the past were dealing with a less polarized electorate and had more support from the other party than any governor today could.”
Rounding out the field were Republican Donald DiFrancesco (44% approval for serving 11 months after Whitman resigned to join the Bush administration in 2001); Democrats McGreevey (42%) and Jon Corzine (41%) and Republican Chris Christie (40%). The controversial Christie may still be in last place, but his number is far higher than the 15% approval rating he got before leaving office in 2018.
As for the current governor, the poll found 46% approve of Democrat Phil Murphy. And the pollster’s observation about polarization holds true: 80% of Democrats said Murphy was doing a good job, but only 10% of Republicans think so.
Predictions that First Lady Tammy Murphy’s now-defunct campaign for the U.S. Senate against U.S. Rep. Andy Kim may have angered progressives is not reflected in the poll, Cassino said.
A total of 74% of people who identified as progressives approved of Murphy, which was higher than support among moderates at 54%
“It might be that progressives in the state were angry at the First Lady or at the institutional Democratic Party,” Cassino said.
The survey was conducted April 1-8. The margin of error was reported at plus-or-minus 4.3 percentage points.
Jelani Gibson is a cannabis and politics reporter for NJ.com. He can be reached at jgibson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @jelanigibson1 and on LinkedIn.
