Jersey Hates AIG Too

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Tabular Results
Survey Details

New Jersey voters hold unfavorable views of Congress and the banks and firms receiving federal funds, even as they continue to support President Obama. According to the latest results from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, three-quarters of New Jersey voters (78%) have an unfavorable view of the insurance giant AIG; 17% have a “somewhat” unfavorable view and another 61% have a “very” unfavorable view of AIG. Just 6% have a favorable view, and 16% are unsure or don’t know about AIG.

Merrill Lynch, which also gave large bonuses to executives even though it had to be forced into sale, also fares poorly among Garden State voters: 42% have an unfavorable opinion and 18% have a favorable opinion, with the rest unsure or unaware of the company.

Gov. Jon Corzine’s former Wall Street firm, Goldman Sachs, is unknown to one in five voters (18%), while another 30% have a mixed or unsure opinion.  Just more than a third (37%) have an unfavorable opinion of the governor’s old firm, while 15% have a favorable opinion.  Party affiliation makes no significant difference.  Opinions of Goldman Sachs do not affect approval or disapproval of the governor. Likewise, opinions of AIG do not affect the president’s approval.

Two-thirds of New Jersey voters (66%) give a thumbs up to the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president, while just 22% disapprove, a number essentially unchanged from a month ago and unaffected by negative opinion of AIG. “The longer the honeymoon with the president continues, the more leeway he will have in shaping policy and dealing with Congress,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University and a survey analyst for PublicMind.

Even those who disapprove of the job Gov. Corzine is doing in New Jersey are more likely to approve than not to approve (48%-37%) of the president’s handling of his job.

Congress does not fare nearly so well. A majority of voters (56%) disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job, while just 31% approve.  Even those who approve of the president’s handling of his job split 44%-42% on their approval of Congress.  In fact, even Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, who has faced criticism for his handling of the bailout and stimulus programs, fares better than Congress: 41% approve of the job he is doing and 31% disapprove.  But nearly half (48%) disapprove of the government’s efforts to support banks, investment firms, and insurance companies by loaning money to them, while 40% approve.

“For now, people have a degree of confidence in the new president that sets him apart from the trouble swirling around him,” said Cassino. “They’re willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt on his programs, including bank bailouts, and to his cabinet members, including Geithner.”

The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of 809 registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone from March 30, 2009, through April 5, 2009, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

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