Monmouth University Will Shutter Its Gold-Standard Polling Institute [View all]
Monmouth University Will Shutter Its Gold-Standard Polling Institute

Monmouth University in West Long Branch. (Photo: Monmouth University).
Monmouth University will shutter its gold-standard polling institute
Patrick Murray, institutes director since 2005, will depart
By Joey Fox and David Wildstein, March 07 2025 3:22 pm
Monmouth University is planning to imminently shutter its lauded polling institute, sources with direct knowledge of the matter have told the New Jersey Globe, robbing New Jersey and the nation of one of its premier pollsters.
Patrick Murray, the polling institutes director, declined to comment. A Monmouth University press contact did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Murray, a former pollster at the Rutgers University Eagleton Poll, left to join Monmouth University in 2005, and in the following 20 years built the universitys fledgling polling institute into one of the most well-respected pollsters in the nation. The institute, which conducted polls of both New Jersey races and national elections, was consistently rated as an A+ pollster by FiveThirtyEight and was treated as New Jerseys gold standard poll.
But in recent years, sources told the Globe, administrators at Monmouth University had begun considering whether the polling institute was worth continuing to support. Some university leaders felt it was losing too much money while not attracting enough students, and any poll that Monmouth released that ultimately ended up being inaccurate always a hazard of the polling trade was seen as a possible stain on the universitys image.
Murray, too, had publicly reckoned with his institutes place in New Jersey politics after the 2021 gubernatorial election, which his polling had shown would be a comfortable victory for Gov. Phil Murphy but which ended up being a nailbiter between Murphy and Republican Jack Ciattarelli. In a Star-Ledger op-ed, Murray questioned the continued utility of horserace polls, and his own methodology changed after that election; Monmouth polls in recent years have not featured direct head-to-head contests, instead asking respondents their thoughts on each candidate separately.
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