Christie rises in national poll

Ted Cruz’s 21-hour pseudo-filibuster handed him a moment that vaulted him to the top of the polling pack.

Now it’s Chris Christie’s turn at the top.

Except that his reward is the first public general election poll of 2016 showing Hillary Clinton trailing.

Quinnipiac University, which dove into the field the day after Christie’s 22-point reelection victory, places the New Jersey governor ahead of the former Secretary of State by 1 point, 43 percent to 42 percent.

The best number contained in the poll for Christie is his support among independents. He wins them by 16 points.  And even his gender gap against Clinton isn’t atrocious.  He only trails Clinton by 9 among the fairer sex.

Christie carries middle and upper income folks and performs better with older voters than younger.

But this survey shows him garnering more crossover appeal than Clinton. For instance, whereas only 20 percent of Republicans believe Clinton would make a good president, 37 percent of Democrats say the same about Christie.

More than a third of African-Americans and 40 percent of Hispanics also think Christie would be a reputable commander in chief.

This is clearly Christie’s bump month.

Remember that it was just October when he trailed Clinton by 13 points nationally, so the first test of Christie’s staying power will come in the December Quinnipiac survey.

Other tidbits buried in the national Quinnipiac poll:

• In the midst of his plagiarism scandal, Rand Paul remains just as competitive against Hillary Clinton as Paul Ryan.  They both lose by 9 points.
• Just 25 percent of respondents believe Joe Biden would make a good president.  That’s just a point better than Ted Cruz.  Even more troubling for Biden, only 51 percent of DEMOCRATS say yes to that question. 
• On Cruz, 3 percent of Democrats think he’d do the job well.
• Twenty-one percent of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of the tea party.

Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com