Editing Richard Codey (section)

=== Public opinion summary ===
As Codey prepared to leave the governor's office, a January 2006 study showed that 48% of voters said the state was "on the wrong track", while 34% said it was headed in the right direction. However, though voters had a negative view of the direction of state, their view of Gov. Codey was strongly positive. In that same study, 68% of voters who recognized Gov. Codey had a favorable opinion of him and the pollsters noted that the outgoing governor had "an impressive 5:1 ratio of favorable to unfavorable opinion".<ref>Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind, (January 12, 2006).[http://publicmind.fdu.edu/060112/index.html Corzine Has Tough Acts to Follow] (press release)</ref>

The [[Obama administration]] approached Codey in 2009 to consider running for governor in Corzine's place if the incumbent withdrew from his reelection bid, citing polls showing that Codey led Republican [[Chris Christie]]. Corzine remained in the race and [[New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2009|lost to Christie]].<ref name="margolin20091104">Margolin, Joshua. "[http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/democratic_leaders_nearly_aban.html Gov. Corzine's N.J. re-election bid nearly abandoned as White House concerns grew]" ''The Star-Ledger'', November 4, 2009.</ref>

Even after being out of the governor's office for over five years, Codey continued to make headlines as a prospective candidate for that office. In a FDU PublicMind Poll released September 27, 2011, voters were asked "If you could pick a Democrat to run against [[Chris Christie]] for governor, who would you prefer?" Richard Codey came up as the most adequate candidate at 18% among other well-known Democrats like [[Cory Booker]] and [[Frank Pallone]].<ref>Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind, (September 27, 2011). [http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2011/bounceback/ Christie Approvals Bounce Back] (press release)</ref>