Poll: Cory Booker’s Best Bet May Be A 2014 Senate Run

TOM KLUDT 2:23 PM EST, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29, 2012

With New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) looking increasingly invincible, a poll released Thursday offers an alternative higher office for Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker (D).

The latest automated survey from left-leaning Public Policy Polling shows Booker as the overwhelming preference among New Jersey Democrats to run in the state's 2014 U.S. Senate race. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who is 88, has not announced if he will seek a sixth term, but Thursday's poll indicates that his in-state party peers would rather see a Booker candidacy. Given the choice between the two, 59 percent of Garden State Democrats prefer Booker as the party's 2014 nominee, while only 22 percent prefer Lautenberg.

Moreover, Booker's 23-point edge over GOP Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno among all voters is wider than Lautenberg's 15-point margin in the hypothetical general election matchups. Booker has not announced whether he will challenge Christie in the state's gubernatorial election next year, but recent polls have shown that the Democrat may be no match for the ulta-popular Republican governor.

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