Democratic demagoging on the minimum wage won't unseat Christie in New Jersey

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Can the issue of a minimum wage hike help push voters to state Sen. Barbara Buono’s side in this year’s gubernatorial election?

On Sunday, I detailed the political logic behind the hard push to get on the fall ballot a constitutional amendment raising the minimum wage and tying any future increases to the Consumer Price Index (the resolution placing it on the ballot must still pass the Assembly). Polling has shown significant support for a wage hike, and Democrats in the Legislature are seeking to capitalize on it.

Patrick Murray, director of polling for Monmouth University, this week cast the issue in sheer numbers and produced an interesting nugget of information concerning the possible impact of the minimum wage in the fall.

Murray and his staff took data gathered for the most recent Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll and separated out those voters who agree on the following issues:

• Republican Gov. Chris Christie deserves re-election.

• The governor’s conditional veto of the minimum wage hike was dissatisfying.

• They support a minimum wage constitutional amendment.

• The minimum wage is an important issue.

The group that agrees on all four of those issues is about 7 percent of those polled.

Murray further asserts that if every person in that 7 percent bloc were to switch his or her vote to Buono, Christie would still have more than 50 percent of the voters polled.

Is this outcome set in stone? No. The race will tighten. We should not expect a 40-point gap in the weeks before Election Day. But it does point to the problem that Democrats and Buono in particular have this year. Voters do not necessarily attribute New Jersey’s ills to Christie.

http://www.app.com/article/20130213/NJCOLUMNIST25/302130028/Can-Buono-make-dent-economic-issues

Edited February 13, 2013 by ^_^