Kim Guadagno

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno is the front-runner in a crowded GOP field seeking to replace Gov. Chris Christie next year. She, like her Democratic rival, former U.S. Ambassador Phil Murphy, is not terribly well-known among an electorate that is just beginning to make up its mind. (Credit: Matt Smith | lehighvalleylive.com) File photo.

(Matt Smith | lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

TRENTON -- The race to succeed Gov. Chris Christie is wide open, a new Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll finds.

As Christie enters his final months in office, a majority of both Democrats and Republicans remain undecided in whom they like for the upcoming gubernatorial primary.

Republican front-runner Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Democratic front-runner Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs banking executive, both have a sizable lead over their party's hopefuls, but the dominant response remains "don't know."

On the Democratic side, Murphy garners 23 percent support -- a six percentage point increase from the last FDU poll in January -- but 53 percent of Democratic-leaning voters still say they "don't know" who they'll back in the June primary.

State Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) and former U.S. Treasury undersecretary Jim Johnson both get 4 percent. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) gets 3 percent, while citizen activist Bill Brennan and community newspaper publisher Lisa McCormick are both polling at 2 percent.

Among Republicans, Guadagno has the clear advantage with 24 percent, while Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerset) gets 4 percent. A lawyer from Bergen County, Dana Wefer, is polling at 2 percent. Nutley town commissioner Steven Rogers and entrepreneur Joseph Rullo both get 1 percent each.

The poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone between March 22 to 26 among a random sample of 758 registered voters in New Jersey, and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.9 percentage points.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.