New Jersey voters want to build things. That’s good news for the people who build them.
The latest FDU Poll, conducted with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, found broad support for making it easier to build middle-class housing (79%), solar and wind plants (64%) and natural gas plants (57%).
For a union whose members run the cranes, excavators and bulldozers on those job sites, that’s a welcome set of numbers.
Greg Lalevee, Business Manager of IUOE Local 825, also sees it as a turning point.
“There is a sea change in New Jersey when it comes to increasing our energy supply with an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach and building more homes,” he said.
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The support crosses party lines. Voters just disagree on which kind of power plant to build.
Democrats favor making it easier to build solar and wind, 80% to 44% for Republicans. Republicans favor natural gas, 75% to 51% for Democrats. Housing is popular with everyone: 85% of Democrats, 73% of Republicans and 72% of independents.
Put another way, nearly everyone wants more power. They’re just arguing over the menu.
Lalevee said that agreement on the basic goal is what matters.
“Voters in a fully nonpartisan way understand we need more of both to make our state more affordable,” he said.
FDU Poll Executive Director Dan Cassino said that’s what happens when problems hit close to home.
“When voters are all looking at the same problems, like unaffordable housing and rising electric bills, the obvious solutions tend to be popular no matter what party you’re coming from,” he said.
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Data centers are a different story.
Only 25% of voters want the state to make it easier to build them, while 65% don’t. Even among Republicans and self-identified MAGA voters, where support was highest at 41%, most aren’t on board.
Lalevee doesn’t dispute the numbers. He chose his words carefully when explaining them.
“Voters have a clear view that data centers won’t help them based on what they know,” he said.
The last four words — “based on what they know” — carry a lot of weight.
The poll’s experiment suggests what voters think they know about data centers has more to do with big tech and AI than with electric bills. Asking voters about their electric bills before the data center question made no measurable difference. Asking them about regulating big tech or AI did. Among voters who wanted more regulation, support for easier data center construction fell to 14%.
In other words, the opposition isn’t really about the buildings. It’s about who’s in them.
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ELEC825, the labor-management partnership of Local 825 and its contractors, has been arguing the other side for weeks.
Kate Gibbs, Deputy Director of ELEC825, told BINJE last week that data centers have been good neighbors in New Jersey for years. They pay state and local taxes, add ratables without adding kids to the school district and helped bring back-office financial jobs to places such as Jersey City. She credits Gov. Mikie Sherrill for rejecting a statewide ban and letting towns decide.
Gibbs said much of the opposition is fueled by misinformation spread online.
“People should be making informed decisions, and it’s right that people have questions,” she said. “But we need to make sure that they’re getting the right answers to those questions.”
The FDU numbers suggest that’s a tall order. The skepticism isn’t only about water use or power demand, which facts can address. It’s about big tech and AI. Cassino said developers who think they can win over towns by building their own power plants are likely to be disappointed, because distrust of big tech is the bigger barrier.
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For Local 825, the poll offers a mixed but useful picture.
Voters want more homes. They want more power. They agree, across party lines, that building more is how New Jersey becomes more affordable.
On data centers, the union and its partners have a different job ahead: changing what voters know.
