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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continues to earn plaudits from Garden State voters recovering from Hurricane Sandy, with three polls this week showing the Republican in solid position in his nascent reelection bid. According to the latest poll, released early Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, a whopping two-thirds of voters believe that Christie deserves to be reelected, and he leads Democrats' top candidate, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, by 18 points.

Christie leads Booker, 53 percent to 35 percent, the poll shows. Booker wins just 67 percent of Democrats, compared to 91 percent of Republicans who stick with Christie. The incumbent also leads among independents, 60 percent to 24 percent.

Booker is easily the top choice of Jersey Democrats. Among registered Democrats surveyed in the poll, Booker would lead the party's primary over former interim Gov. Richard Codey, 41 percent to 12 percent. State Sen. Barbara Buono earns 4 percent of the vote, while two other candidates are only at 1 percent.

On Tuesday, Quinnipiac released other results, which showed Christie's approval rating at 72 percent, the highest they have ever recorded for a New Jersey governor. His favorable and reelect ratings are lower, with each at 67 percent, but those are still overwhelmingly positive results, and they are markedly higher from measures recorded before the storm.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted Nov. 19-25, surveying 1,664 registered voters. The margin of error for the poll is plus-or-minus 2.4 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac poll is the third survey to show Christie in improved position since Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore. Christie also hit 67-percent favorable mark in a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Tuesday, and a Fairleigh Dickinson University panel-back survey showed rising approval of Christie among voters contacted both before and after the storm.

Christie announced Monday that he would seek a second term as the state's governor. He unseated then-Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009, defeating the Democrat, 48 percent to 45 percent.