Bruce Springsteen, NJ Gov. Chris Christie Neck-and-Neck in Hypothetical Race

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Bruce Springsteen

Paul Zimmerman/WireImage (Christie), Henry S. Dziekan III/WireImage (Springsteen)

A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling reveals that if New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie faced off against Bruce Springsteen in a hypothetical political race, they would start out tied at 42 percent of the vote each. In the same poll, Springsteen ranked higher in terms of favorability, with 50 percent of all polled voicing approval of the legendary songwriter.

Photos: 17 Great Bruce Springsteen Collaborations

It's pretty unlikely that Bruce Springsteen would actually enter the governors race in New Jersey, but he has been an outspoken critic of Christie over the past year. In March, the rocker wrote a letter to the Asbury Park Press attacking Christie's severe state budget cuts.

Photos: Vintage Bruce Springsteen

Though Christie is a rising star of the GOP on a national level, his approval rating in New Jersey have sunk to 43 percent, a 10-point drop since the beginning of the year. At the moment, polls project that the Republican would lose in a hypothetical gubernatorial race against Cory Booker, the Democrat mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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