TRENTON -- Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Phil Murphy has a commanding lead over his GOP rival, Kim Guadagno, to succeed Gov. Chris Christie in January, a poll released Wednesday shows.

Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany, leads Guadagno 55 percent to 26 percent, according to the Quinnipiac University Poll. Guadagno, Christie's second in command, falls short of Murphy in every polling demographic -- gender, education, age and racial group -- except among Republicans.

"Hobbled by eight years in a little noticed job and her ties to a remarkably unpopular governor, Lt. Gov. Guadagno is little-known and little-liked," Maurice Carroll, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said.

The GOP is outnumbered by registered Democrats in the state by nearly 840,000 people, according to recent statistics from the state's Division of Elections. As of the end of April, New Jersey had 2,048,311 registered Democrats and 1,209,127 Republicans.

The largest number of New Jersey voters -- 2,402,244 to be exact -- have not formally claimed any party affiliation.

Guadagno leads 78 percent to 8 percent among Republicans. But she falls short in every other category, including among unaffiliated voters, where Murphy leads 46 percent to Guadagno's 26 percent, according to the poll.

Carrol quipped the November election "doesn't look like this race will go down to the wire."

Murphy has a 33 percent to 18 percent favorability rating, according to the poll. But 47 percent of New Jerseyans said they haven't heard of him.

Guadagno has negative favorability, a 20 percent to 28 percent, the poll shows. Fifty percent of people polled haven't heard enough to form an opinion.

"The last New Jersey governor from Goldman Sachs, Jon Corzine, failed to win a second term, but only one-third of voters hold Murphy's Wall Street career against him," Carroll said. "Guadagno's experience as lieutenant governor seems to be hurting her."

The survey was conducted between June 7 and 12. Quinnipiac polled 1,103 New Jersey voters by live interviews on landlines and cell phones. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.