christie

Gov. Chris Christie (Tony Kurdzuk | The Star-Ledger)

WASHINGTON — More than four in 10 Republicans say they won't consider backing Gov. Chris Christie for their party's presidential nomination, the worst ranking among potential GOP candidates, according to a new poll.

Just 28 percent of those surveyed by CBS News said they would consider supporting the New Jersey governor, compared with the 43 percent who said they would not.

The survey said 49 percent of Republicans would consider supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for the nomination, with 26 percent saying they wouldn't; 46 percent would consider backing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 24 percent saying no; and 37 percent would consider voting for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, with 19 percent indicating they would not.

Other than Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican in negative territory, with 31 percent saying they would not consider supporting him to be the GOP standardbearer and 30 percent said they would consider voting for him.

But while 38 percent said they didn't know enough about Paul to make up their minds, only 29 percent said the same about Christie. That was second to Bush, where just 25 percent of Republicans said they didn't know enough about him to have an opinion.

Still, it's early. The poll said that just 15 percent of all respondents were paying a lot of attention to the 2016 presidential race, compared with 54 percent who were giving the election little or no attention.

Christie fared better than many of his top rivals among self-described independents, where 36 percent said they wouldn't consider supporting him for the Republican presidential nomination, compared with 25 percent who said they would, and 38 percent who said they didn't know enough about him.

For Bush, 41 percent said they wouldn't consider supporting him, while 24 percent said they would; and for Huckabee, 33 percent said no, and 23 percent said yes.

Paul, however, did better among independents in the survey, with 29 percent saying they wouldn't support him, and 28 percent saying they would.

On the Democratic side, 81 percent said they would consider voting for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination, while 12 percent said they wouldn't and just 7 percent saying they didn't know enough about her to venture an opinion.

The survey of 1,006 voters, including 255 Republicans and 305 Democrats, was conducted Feb. 13-17. The margin of error was 6 percentage points.

Christie's potential 2016 Republican rivals 18 Gallery: Christie's potential 2016 Republican rivals

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.