New Quinnipiac Poll- Senate race

A new Quinnipiac poll shows the Senate race here in NJ is pretty close. The big headline numbers are that Senator Robert Menendez leads challenger Tom Kean JUNIOR by 43%-36%, with 17 % undecided. No, that doesn't sound too close, until you read the rest.

The non-headline "rest of the numbers" are always the most interesting, to me anyway.

50% of responders said they haven't heard enough about Menendez to have an opinion about him, where 56% haven't heard enough about Kean Jr. Of those who did have a definite opinion on how to vote in the election, 40% said they might change their minds before the election. Also, even though Junior is trailing Menendez, his "honest and trustworthy" poll numbers are at 42%, whereas Menendez is riding at 38%. This far away, the election is a lot closer then the Dems would want it to be, or than those headline numbers display.

Some of the numbers were well in Menendez's favor, however. 49% of us agree with Sen. Menendez when he says Junior is a "George Bush Republican who would support the Bush administration policies."- and that hurts him, with 50% of responders who agreed saying it makes them less likely to vote for Junior. However, when Junior calls Menendez "a political party boss who is unethical," only 23% of us agree.

Oh, and 68% of us disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq. The only thing surprising about this number is that it isn't higher.