Q Poll: Menendez Leads Kyrillos By 13

By Steven Shepard  //  July 18, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., leads Republican Joe Kyrillos by 13 percentage points in his reelection campaign, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.

Menendez leads Kyrillos, a state senator, 47 percent to 34 percent. And while those results are not statistically different from a Quinnipiac survey in May that showed Menendez leading Kyrillos by 10 points, Menendez is creeping closer to majority support.

Menendez "is close to the magic 50 percent mark," said Quinnipiac University Polling Institute director Mickey Carroll. "Kyrillos could be looking at that 13-point hole and thinking about what Mercutio said in Romeo & Juliet: 'Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve.'"

The poll shows Menendez leading among male voters by just 5 points, but the Democrat carries the female vote by a robust 22 points. Menendez also leads among independent voters by 11 points.

A fair number of voters -- 36 percent -- still say they haven't heard enough about Menendez to form an opinion about him, where it has been all year. But Kyrillos' name-ID has only increased modestly, and the vast majority of voters still don't know enough about him.

Overall, 46 percent of voters feel that Menendez deserves to be reelected, compared to 34 percent who feels he does not. Menendez's 13-point lead is comparable to President Obama's 11-point edge over Mitt Romney in the state. That is virtually identical to the president's margin over the Republican all year long. The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted July 9-15, surveying 1,623 registered voters. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 2.4 percentage points.

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