Poll finds Republicans resistant to Chris Christie presidential candidacy

Poll finds Republicans resistant to Chris Christie presidential candidacy

By Dan Balz and Peyton M. Craighill at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-finds-republicans-resistant-to-chris-christie-presidential-candidacy/2014/03/05/cdcf64dc-a48d-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

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As conservatives gather in the Washington area on Thursday for three days of speeches from prospective 2016 presidential candidates and discussions about the future of the GOP, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that three in 10 of all Republicans say they would not vote for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie if he ran for the White House.

Christie will address the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday morning. He was not invited to speak at last year’s event. What he says and the reception he receives will be closely watched and analyzed, and the new survey underscores the obstacles Christie will face if he seeks his party’s nomination in 2016.

The poll also found that former Florida governor Jeb Bush has problems of a different kind. He is more popular in the Republican Party than Christie but faces potential head winds as a candidate. The Post-ABC poll found that almost half of all Americans, and 50 percent of registered voters, say they “definitely would not” vote for him for president — a possible hangover from the presidency of his brother George W. Bush.

The overall findings underscore the degree to which the contest for the GOP nomination in 2016 is as wide open as any in the modern era. The poll found that there is no obvious beneficiary to Christie’s problems within the party or Jeb Bush’s apparent problem with the wider elec­torate. Many of those thinking about running have made little impression on the general public and in some cases they are not even well known among Republicans.

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