Poll: Senator Frank Lautenberg Too Old for Re-Election, Voters Say

Frank Lautenberg is a four-term Senator from New Jersey who is up for re election in 2008. The latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll shows that New Jersey voters are not inclined to elect him to a fifth term, not so much because they are unhappy with his record, but because of his age. He would be 84 by the time his next term would start.

Of the respondents in this poll, all of them New Jersey voters, 24% say he should be re-elected while 61% say it is time for a change.

When asked to give the Senator a favorable or unfavorable rating, 13% said they had never heard of him and 23% had no opinion 38% gave him a favorable rating, which is an increase of 6% since September of last year, but his unfavorability rating is also up by 3% to 25% in the same time period.

They also asked whether or not they approved of the job he is doing and 31% said they did not know or just did not answer the question, 37% approve of the job he is doing, which is much higher than the Congress in general is getting and 32% disapprove.

The other Senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez has a 29% approval rating, and a 36% disapproval rating with 355 having no opinion.

The voters who say Lautenberg does not deserve to be reelected comes to 61%, which is the highest it has ever been for him right before an election.

Breaking the results down demographically it comes out to 75% of the Republicans, 69% of the independents and 48% of the Democrats agree that he should not be re elected as do the majority of two groups that have always been strong supporters of the Democratic Party, no white voters at 70% and women with 61%. Men come in with 62% who agree he should not be re elected.

They asked the above questions first and then asked the one about his age. They asked the age question in two ways, one part of the group got one question, the other part the second one, to see if they got the same response.