Question: If the election for the U.S. Senate were held today, for whom would you vote (ROTATE) Robert Menendez, the Democrat, Tom Kean Jr., the Republican, or some other candidate for Senate?

Poll Demographics
Dem: 205
Rep: 167
Ind: 223
Other: 47

Male: 308
Female: 352

About this Poll
The latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll was conducted from September 24-26, 2006 with a scientifically selected random sample of 804 New Jersey adults. This sample yielded 660 adult residents registered to vote in New Jersey, and 404 adult residents considered likely to vote. Unless otherwise noted, most of the figures in this release are based on the statewide sample of registered voters. Sampling and data collection were conducted by Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas, Inc (SRBI).

All surveys are subject to sampling error, which is the expected probable difference between interviewing everyone in a population versus a scientific sampling drawn from that population. The sampling error for a sample of 804 adults is + 3.5 percent, at a 95 percent confidence interval. Thus if 50 percent of New Jersey adults were found to have a favorable opinion of a senatorial candidate, one would be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 47.5 and 53.5 percent (50 + 3.5) had all New Jersey adults been interviewed, rather than just a sample. The margin of sampling error for 660 registered voters is + 3.8 percent; the margin of sampling error for 404 likely voters is + 4.9 percent. Sampling error increases as the sample size decreases, so statements based on various population subgroups are subject to more error than are statements based on the total sample. The following chart shows the relationship between sample size and sampling error. Sampling error does not take into account other sources of variation inherent in public opinion studies, such as non-response, question wording or context effects. This release contains the verbatim wording of all questions featured in the release.