The other highly watched Research 2000/Daily Kos poll resultcasts the New Jersey gubernatorial race the way that everyone else is casting it — a tie, with Gov. Jon Corzine’s (D-N.J.) fate depending on base turnout and the strength of independent candidate Chris Daggett. In this poll, his support has doubled. Toplines, with trends: “„Chris Christie (R) – 42 (-4)
Jon Corzine (D) – 41 (-1)
Chris Daggett (I) – 14 (+7)
The informed Republican take is that Corzine can’t break 40 percent in private GOP polling, and that unless Daggett’s numbers hold, Christie will defy the usual 11th-hour GOP meltdown and win. The optimistic Democratic take is that the polls mean less than turnout and absentee ballot operations, which will get Corzine what he needs — somewhere around 1 million votes — to come out on top in the three-way race.