Chris Christie's approval continues to drop in New Jersey

Gov. Chris Christie's standing with New Jersey voters has continued to drop in the wake of the "bridgegate" scandal," a poll released Monday indicated. The Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll also found that 54 percent of respondents do not think Christie has a presidential temperament, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported. Allegations that access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were closed for four days in September, causing massive traffic jams in Fort Lee, as an act of retaliation against the city's Democratic mayor, have tarnished Christie's image. He has also been hit with charges that he threatened to withhold aid from Hoboken, N.J., a city on the Hudson River hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, unless the mayor there approved a development project sought by one of his allies. A lawyer for Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said Monday that his client met with federal prosecutors to discuss the lane closings. Tim Donohue said in a statement that Sokolich would not comment on the meeting because the investigation is still underway. The poll found that 49 percent of those surveyed approve of Christie's performance as governor and 46 percent disapprove. His approval rating has dropped by 9 percentage points since January and 20 points since the months immediately after Sandy. New Jersey residents are also far more critical of the Christie administration's Sandy recovery efforts than they were a few months ago, the poll found. Monmouth University's polling institute questioned 803 New Jersey residents, 690 of them registered voters, Feb. 19-23. The margin of error is 3.5 points for the entire sample and 3.7 points for registered voters.