A new poll shows New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's downward slide is leveling out.
The Quinnipiac University Poll out Wednesday shows 47 percent of registered voters approve of how he's doing his job, while 46 percent disapprove.
It was Christie's highest approval rating in the poll in four months. The last conducted in June showed the Republican governor with a 44 percent approval rating.
By a 50-35 percent margin, New Jersey voters like Gov. Christie as a person.
However, poll director Maurice Carroll says the gender gap remains big; 55 percent of women disapprove of Christie, compared to 36 percent of men.
“Politics makes bad pillow talk in New Jersey,” Carroll said. “There are big gender gaps in the approval ratings for Gov. Christopher Christie, with men for him and women against him.”
And while most voters know of Christie's recent asthma attack, only 18 percent say that worries them.
Politics
The same poll shows President Barack Obama is headed in the wrong direction as New Jersey voters disapprove 52-44 percent of the job he is doing, down from a 50-46 percent positive score June 21 and the president's lowest score ever in the Garden State.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez has a slightly negative 39-42 percent approval rating, down from a positive 45-38 percent score June 21. Voters split 41-43 percent on whether Menendez deserves reelection in 2012, but back him 45-39 percent over an unnamed Republican challenger.
"Sen. Robert Menendez has a lot of work to do with his re-election year coming up," Carroll said. "The debt ceiling hullaballoo has taken a toll on him and on President Obama."
The telephone poll of 1,624 registered voters was conducted from Aug. 9-15. It has an error margin of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
