According to the new FDU poll, 18 percent of likely voters remain undecided as to whom they prefer. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images and Julio Cortez/AP Photo New FDU poll shows Menendez with 6-point lead over Hugin

Sen. Bob Menendez’s path to winning reelection this year could be with undecided Democrats, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Menendez (D-N.J.), beset by political problems springing from a federal corruption trial he survived last year, leads Republican challenger Bob Hugin, 43 percent to 37 percent, among likely voters, according to the latest Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind poll.


The results are a bit more favorable for Menendez than those of a Stockton University poll released Monday, which showed the race a virtual dead heat. A Quinnipiac University poll in late August also had Menendez leading by 6 points.

According to the new FDU poll, 18 percent of likely voters remain undecided as to whom they prefer. That includes 22 percent of Democrats, 6 percent of Republicans and 42 percent of independents. But there’s little evidence of cross-party appeal, as just 4 percent of likely Democratic voters say they’ll vote for Hugin — barely more than the 3 percent of Republicans who back Menendez.

“If Menendez is able to capture the support of undecided Democrats, plus some of the independents, he will be able to decisively pull ahead of Hugin by November,” poll director Krista Jenkins said in a release that accompanied the results. “It will be harder for Hugin to do the same, given the smaller base of undecided Republicans in the state. But, as they say, the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day.”

There are 900,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey, though many voters who are officially unaffiliated tend to identify with one party or the other.

Despite his small lead over Hugin, Menendez — who in April was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee over his relationship with Florida eye doctor and Medicare fraudster Salomon Melgen — remains deeply unpopular. Fifty-three percent of likely voters questioned have an unfavorable opinion of him, while 35 percent have a favorable one.

Hugin, the former CEO of New Jersey pharmaceutical company Celgene and major financial backer of President Donald Trump, is seen favorably by 36 percent and unfavorably by 30 percent, while 33 percent haven’t heard of him.

Trump’s unpopularity in New Jersey could help Menendez: The president has a 38 percent approval rating and a 59 percent disapproval rating among likely voters.

The FDU poll may come as a bit of relief to Menendez and his supporters.

On Monday, a Stockton University poll showed Menendez leading Hugin by just two points — well within its margin of error. Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray, criticized the Stockton poll’s sample as too old and white, and not Democratic enough. The weighted results of the FDU poll show a younger, less white and more Democratic pool of respondents.

New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972. But Hugin, who has a a vast personal fortune, has poured millions of dollars of his own money into the race. He spent much of the summer running TV ads attacking Menendez over his ethics record, and the Senate Ethics Committee’s admonishment of him.

Menendez only recently began answering Hugin with ads of his own, going after Hugin’s record leading Celgene, which increased prices on its profitable cancer medication and settled for $280 million with the federal government over a fraud lawsuit.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of 508 likely voters was taken from Sept. 26-30, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.