Should have caught that. It would never appear on my map because mine shows only post-election polls (mid-November 2012 onward). Christie gained support because he stood up to Republican politicians. That remains the reality.
Christie gained support because he was an able administrator during and after Hurricane Sandy. Standard rally effect. Standing up to national Republicans probably helped him hold on to and solidify that popularity, though.
He deserves recognition for putting service to the electorate above Party.
I am going on margins here. Democrats ahead will of course be shown in
red and Republicans ahead will be shown in
blue. Saturation of color will so look:
tie white
1-3% 20% saturation
4-7% 40% saturation
8%-20% 60% saturation
over 20% 80% saturation
The lowest level of saturation (20%) now applies for any incumbent Governor whose approval is under 8% but whose approval rating is under 50%. The second-lowest level of saturation (40%) now applies to any Governor whose approval rating is under 50% but whose margin of difference is 8% or higher. No change applies to any Governor whose approval is lower than disapproval.
Behind, yellow the colors to
green for Republicans and
orange for Democrats. Dark shades of orange are really
brown. Ties are white.
Governors who die, resign, are defeated in bids for re-election, retire at the end of their terms, or are impeached and removed from office will be whited out. Independent governor or no governor -- white.
Here is my map of current margins of approval for governors based only upon results from after the November 2012 election. As you can see from this map Chris Christie is in no danger of defeat in the next election. Red shades indicate an incumbent Democrat in good shape, blue shades show an incumbent Republican in good shape. Deep red or blue shades indicate a very strong position in polling (as for Cuomo in New York or Christie in New Jersey). Orange shows the inverse of a Democrat being successful (Quinn is in trouble in Illinois) and green shows the inverse of a successful Republican Governor (Scott is wildly unpopular in Florida) .