Poll: Bloomberg Bid Would Hurt Giuliani Effort

A presidential bid by Mayor Bloomberg would take more support from Mayor Giuliani, a Republican, than from Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, a poll of New Jersey voters found. Mr. Giuliani leads Ms. Clinton, 47% to 44% in a head-to-head match-up, the survey by Quinnipiac University found. They fall into a tie at 36%, with Bloomberg in third at 18%, in a three-way race. The poll questioned 1,604 New Jersey voters June 26–July 2.

Mr. Bloomberg switched his voter registration to independent on June 19, ending his affiliation with the Republican Party.

He said he has no plans to run for president.

The survey also found that President Bush's job-approval rating dropped to a record low 21%, and 74% said they disapprove of his performance.

Mr. Bush's rating is a 4 percentage-point drop from a similar poll in April. The rating is "lower than we've ever measured for a president in any state or national poll," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the survey.

Twenty-one percent of those surveyed in New Jersey approve of the way Mr. Bush is handling the Iraq war, and 57% said they support Congress setting a timetable to withdraw all American troops from Iraq.

Forty-seven percent said the Iraq war is the most important issue the next president must deal with, the poll found.

The poll, by Hamden, Conn.-based Quinnipiac University, has an error margin of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.