NEW YORK CITY — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio's popularity soared again with voters — blasting ahead of his fellow candidates in the home stretch before primary day, according to a new poll.
De Blasio got the support of 43 percent of those polled — a 7-point leap in popularity since last week's poll — while City Council Speaker Christine Quinn only netted 18 percent and former comptroller Bill Thompson got 20 percent, according to the Quinnipiac poll.
De Blasio also gained the support of women, with 44 percent saying they prefer him, versus only 18 percent for Quinn. Black Democratic voters also favored de Blasio over all other candidates, including Thompson, the only black candidate in the primary, whom only 25 percent of those surveyed said they backed, according to the poll.
“Can Public Advocate Bill de Blasio keep his surge going for seven more days? If he does, his first contribution could be to the New York City budget — saving the expense of a runoff election,” Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement, referring to the runoff election that will take place in October if no candidate gets 40 percent of the primary vote on Sept. 10.
On the Republican side, Joe Lhota, the former MTA chief and aide to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, continued to dominate in the race with 48 percent of likely GOP primary voters supporting his campaign, compared to 24 percent for supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis and 10 percent for Doe Fund founder George McDonald, the poll found.
“With his liberal platform, de Blasio would be a tempting target for Joseph Lhota and the Republicans, if the race works out that way,” Carroll said.
The survey of 750 Democrats and 101 Republicans likely to vote in next week’s primary was conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 1 over cellphones and landlines. The margin of error for the Democratic results was 3.6 percentage points and for the Republican results it was 9.8 percentage points.