Many NJ Residents Have Low Opinion of the Quality of State Government

A new poll finds many New Jersey residents have a negative view of the quality of government, both here in the Garden State and in Washington, D.C.

About 36% give New Jersey government an excellent or good rating while just 19% say the same for Washington, D.C.

About 29% said Trenton is better run while 9% thought Washington was. About 57% said the two are run about the same.

Political affiliation makes a difference

Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, says if your political party controls the New Jersey Legislature, you’re more apt to think they’re doing a better job.

Among Democrats, 63% rate the state government positively, while just 14% of Republicans do.

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The poll finds just 31% of New Jersey Democrats have a positive view of the federal government, while 9% of Jersey Republicans give the federal government an excellent or good rating.

Is politics an honorable profession?

Murray said the poll finds New Jerseyans are split on the question.

"‘Right now 44% say getting involved in politics is a dirty business, and that’s up from 32% when we polled this 15 years ago," he said.

He noted Republicans (52%) and independents (52%) are more likely than Democrats (33%) to have a negative image of politics and there are no significant generational differences in responses to this question.

The poll also finds 55% of Jersey residents feel they personally can make at least some kind of a difference to solve problems in their communities.

One in five New Jersey adults report working either alone or with a group to solve a problem in their community over the past 12 months and another 31% indicated they worked on a community problem more than a year ago.

Back in 2010, only a third of 18- to 34-year-olds reported ever working to solve a community problem, but in the current survey 55% say have done this.

About the poll

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from January 5 to 9, 2023 with 809 New Jersey adults. The question results in this release have a margin of error of +/- 4.7 percentage points.