Christie Says Sagging Poll Numbers Won’t Change His Approach

As he continues to mull a run for the White House in 2016, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s approval numbers continue to sag, but the governor says he won't let his actions be dictated by poll results.

Recent polls show about half of Garden State voters don’t approve of the job Christie is doing, in fact, his approval ratings are the lowest they've been since he took office five-and-a-half years ago.

"I don’t care and I can’t care. I am who I am," Christie said during the April Edition of Townsquare Media's Ask The Governor program Monday night. "There's been a relentless negative coverage from the media, so if you have relentless negative coverage, that's going to affect your poll numbers."

A Quinnipiac University survey released last week found 56 percent of voters disapprove of the job he’s doing, while 38 percent approve. The poll also found 53 percent of respondents believe Christie knew about the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge that set off the Bridgegate controversy, although many don’t think he necessarily ordered the lane closures in Fort Lee.

Meanwhile a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll, also released last week, found 50% of respondents don’t think Christie is doing a good job, while 36 percent approve of the job he’s doing.

The governor said he's not too concerned about the low numbers and he's behaving the same now as he did when his poll results were in record positive territory.

"You guys have a ball psychoanalyzing me all the time," Christie said. "The thing that drives others in the media crazy is...I don't change. You want me to react. If you allow yourself as a public official to dictate your conduct, your positions, your mood by your polls, you're a dead man, because polls will change, sometimes for reasons that are readily apparent, sometimes for reasons that aren't."

Christie also said he has his own pollster, and that entity's numbers are different than the numbers in recent surveys.

"But what I'm saying is it doesn't change my approach," said Christie. "You get informed by that and then you move on. If I wanted my poll numbers to go up then I would just do all the things the polls say you should do. If I think it's the wrong thing to do then I'm not doing it, no matter what the polls say."

The governor added he's never running for office again in New Jersey so he's not concerned about the next election in the state.