The effort to recall Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) from his office now has the attention of Rasmussen Reports. Their results show that the Menendez recall effort can succeed--if the recall committee can get their message out. They also show that Menendez would have greater difficulty getting re-elected in 2012, even if the recall bid failed--and if the recall question were to reach the ballot, he might well lose.
Rasmussen Reports conducted its survey of 500 likely New Jersey voters on April 13, 2010. In that survey, they asked their respondents three questions (paraphrased):
- How well do you approve of the job that Robert Menendez is doing as a Senator from New Jersey?
- How closely are you following the news of the Menendez recall effort?
- If a recall election were actually held today, how would you vote on the question of recalling him?
Richard T. Luzzi (Independence Caucus)
The results are not promising for Menendez. To begin with, though the numbers of people who approve and disapprove of Menendez are about even, the numbers of people who strongly disapprove are more than twice those who strongly approve. Furthermore, if a recall election were held today, 39 percent would vote to recall him, against 34 percent who would vote to retain him. The remaining 27 percent are not sure. Thus the idea of recalling Menendez is ahead by five percent--the very margin by which Chris Christie became Governor of New Jersey last year. Yet at the same time nearly one-third of New Jersey voters remain unsure of how they would vote--and the recall committee would likely need at least half those voters in order to qualify their recall petition. A State-wide recall petition requires the signatures of a number of voters equal to 25 percent of the number of persons registered to vote as of the immediately previous general election, according to the Uniform Recall Election Law.
RoseAnn Salanitri
The cautionary result for the Committee to Recall Robert Menendez from the Office of United States Senator is this: 56 percent of respondents admitted that they were not following the Menendez recall story very closely, if at all. This indicates that what the recall committee needs, more than anything else, is exposure.
Rasmussen reports a margin-of-error of 4 percent and a confidence rating of 95 percent.
In fact, a recall election, if held, would have two questions. They would be:
- Shall Robert Menendez be recalled from the office of United States Senator?
- If Robert Menendez is so recalled, who ought to serve as United States Senator for the remainder of his unexpired term?
Richard T. Luzzi, the legal spokesman for the recall committee, mentioned yesterday at the Morristown Tea Party rally on the Morristown Green that a number of people were asking him where they could go to sign recall petitions. As this Examiner has also said, the answer is: nowhere, until the litigation surrounding the recall effort is finished. The recall committee is already building a mailing list that they will use to announce the availability of recall petitions, as soon as they may make any such announcement.
RoseAnn Salanitri, the head of the recall committee, could not immediately be reached for comment.
This article is part of the Robert Menendez series.
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