If yesterday's Monmouth University and today's Stockton University polls are accurate, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is ready to reverse the 40-year trend.

Since Brendan Byrne won re-election, there has not been a Democratic governor of New Jersey.

Byrne was the 47th governor of New Jersey, and his term of office was from 1974 to 1982.

The Monmouth University poll showed that Governor Murphy leads the Republican candidate Jack Chatrelli by 11 percentage points.

Today’s Stockton University poll shows that Murphy has risen by 9 percentage points, 50% to 41%

Stockton included voters who favor Murphy and Chatrelli, which is correct for the actual ongoing election...Today is the sixth day of the first early vote in New Jersey's history... …Voting will continue until Sunday, October 31, 2021.

The poll of 522 possible voters was conducted for the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University, with a margin of error of /- 4.3%.

"When you consider that this poll was conducted after the governor's debate is over, the feelings of voters seem to be quite mature at this point," said John Fronkin, executive director of the Hughes Center. "The distribution of votes among candidates is very consistent."

Here are some interesting and seemingly inconsistent findings:

Compared to the right direction (42%), more voters (45%) believe that the state is heading in the wrong direction, and 13% of them are unsure. But 52% still approve of Murphy's performance in leading the state as governor, while 44% disapprove.

Property taxes (15%) and general taxes (12%) are still the top concerns of voters, followed by COVID safety (11%) and the economy (8%).

Democrats and Republicans have shown almost the same degree of extreme party polarization in each measure, but Democrats have the advantage of over 1 million registered voters. Murphy also led the polls as an independent person, indicating that the situation of voters in this group has improved since the earlier Stockton polls.

Research assistant Alyssa Maurice said that Ciattarelli leads among white voters and male voters, while Murphy's approval rate for voters with a degree of four years or more, Hispanic voters, women, and the vast majority of black voters higher.

“Many people fail to see the fact that the candidates for governor debate have a negative impact on the value of these debates,” Froonjian said. "Most parties already know how they will vote, but the debate has value in allowing hesitant or uncertain voters to evaluate candidates in the action."

Voters oppose college sports gambling in New Jersey

The majority of voters (51%) opposed the constitutional amendment, allowing gambling in college games held in New Jersey or games played by New Jersey teams. This is higher than the 45% of the Stockton poll in September. 37% of people support such an amendment, while 11% are not sure.

Find the complete Stockton University poll results here.