Obama wins New Jersey

President Barack Obama won New Jersey to claim its 14 electoral votes yesterday.

Obama’s re-election campaign devoted little time or money to the Democrat-leaning state that was expected to remain in the president’s corner.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie was the first governor to endorse GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He raised millions for him during the campaign.

But Christie also heaped praise on Obama after Superstorm Sandy ravaged New Jersey’s coast a week before the election. Obama toured storm-damaged Atlantic City with the governor last week.

Christie is considered a possible GOP presidential contender in 2016

 

New Jersey results

With 99% of the precincts reporting

Barack Obama – 58%

Mitt Romney – 41%

Gary Johnson – 1%

Jill Stein – 0%

*Stein’s VP running mate is Philadelphia activist Cheri Honkala

Virgil Goode – 0%

Rocky Anderson – 0%

Jeff Boss – 0%

Merlin Miller – 0%

James Harris – 0%

Peta Lindsay – 0%

 

Nearly four out of five New Jersey voters surveyed say President Barack Obama’s response to Superstorm Sandy was a factor in their vote.

An exit poll conducted by The Associated Press found nearly seven in 10 New Jersey voters said the economy is the most important issue facing the nation.

Almost three in five said unemployment is the biggest economic issue. Fewer than one in five cited taxes.

More than half blamed former President George W. Bush for the situation, while nearly four in 10 blamed Obama.

Nearly three in five said the 2010 health care law should be expanded or left as is.

The exit poll of 725 New Jersey voters in 11 precincts statewide has sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.