De Blasio Close To 40% In New York City Mayoral Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds

[brooklynite]

Source: Qunnipiac University

With 13 days until the primary election, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio surges ahead of the Democratic pack for New York City mayor with 36 percent of likely voters, close to the 40 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is at 21 percent, with 20 percent for former City Comptroller William Thompson, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has 8 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, with 6 percent for City Comptroller John Liu, 1 percent for former Council member Sal Albanese and 8 percent undecided.

This compares to the results of an August 13 Quinnipiac University poll which showed de Blasio at 30 percent, with 24 percent for Quinn and 22 percent for Thompson.

Read more: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/new-york-city/release-detail?ReleaseID=1944

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For the out-of-towners, if a candidate gets 40% of the vote in the Primary, they avoid a run-off.

[polichick]

1. Good news. Has Anthony finally taken his weiner and gone home?

[BeyondGeography]

2. Pretty impressive

Shows what an opportunity Weiner had to be the non-Quinn in the race. The good guy is winning.

[7962]

3. Looks like the competition was too stiff for him.

[closeupready]

4. Good deal. Rooting for him.

K&R

[gopiscrap]

5. Alright!

[Jefferson23]

6. Good! K&R n/t

[Princess Turandot]

7. I've seen several tv ads for him in recent weeks...

on cable (TNT and USA) primarily. That may be helping some.

[geek tragedy]

8. A lot of people really wanted to vote for Christine Quinn but just can't.

If she had run 4 years ago, she'd probably be Mayor Quinn. But, instead, she opted to become Bloomberg's Mini-Me.

[hrmjustin]

9. I have decided to vote for De Blasio.

[Jim Lane]

10. De Blasio would be another pro-development Mayor.

Yes, he is progressive on some issues, but he doesn't stand up to the big-money developers. (For example, he opposed Superfund designation for the contaminated Gowanus Canal, joining Bloomberg in not wanting to scare off developers.)

I do volunteer work for the Sierra Club, which has endorsed John Liu in the Democratic primary. The people on the Political Committee were very impressed by him at the interview, and the vote was unanimous that he was the best environmental candidate. De Blasio didn't even show up to try to defend his record.

[brooklynite]

11. John Liu wil be lucky to make it to the Primary before being indicted...

His Finance Chair is already facing charges, and he was denied public matching funds, which is usually because of illegitimate campaign practices.

That said, even if he stays in the race, he can't even move ahead of Anthony Weiner.

[Jim Lane]

12. Certainly he has very little chance of winning.

Still, if a candidate stands up to the developers, supports reducing the City's carbon footprint, opposes fracking, supports parks, etc., then people who agree with those things should give him their vote.

We know for sure that candidates who go the other way will be rewarded. We have to do what we can to counter that influence.

As an aside, at one of the meetings we held, a proponent of the Liu endorsement dismissed the polls. She said that the pollsters weren't polling Liu's people, that he was going to bring supporters to the polls in numbers that the pollsters weren't reckoning on, etc. I responded that I'd read the same story out of the Romney campaign last October. Unlike my colleague, I supported the Liu endorsement while recognizing that he had no chance of making a runoff.

I'll go out on a limb, though, and say that he has at least a chance of pulling ahead of Weiner and thus finishing fourth.