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Presidental Debate Might Not Sway Many NJ Voters

By Phil Gregory, WBGO News
October 2, 2012

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Analysts do not expect tomorrow night’s debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney to make much of a difference for most New Jersey voters.

Polls show Obama with a double-digit lead over Romney in the Garden State.

Monmouth University political analyst Patrick Murray says the average New Jersey resident probably won’t pay much attention to the debate.

 “The people in New Jersey who will be watching this debate are the same people who will be watching it nationwide whether they’re in a competitive state or not which are political junkies. This is people who already know who they’re going to vote for and just want to tune in and see how well their candidate does or how poorly the other guy does.”

Montclair State political science professor Brigid Harrison says some undecided voters will be focused on the debate.

 “This political campaign has been years in the making and I think that many people would be interested in the juxtaposition of Governor Romney versus President Obama and just kind of comparing them side by side.”

Krista Jenkins is the director of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll. She expects the first of the three Presidential debates will be of most interest to the average person.

“Usually we see the highest degree of interest in the first debate and then after that it kind of trails off. So I think what we’re going to see is maybe more generalized interest in this first. Then after that I would argue it’s probably just going to be more policy junkies who are following it from here on out.”

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