7/15/2013
By Ivan Pereira
New York’s comeback politicians just might be regaining the public’s trust after all, according to a poll released Monday.
A survey by Quinnipiac University found that former Gov. Eliot Spitzer leads his Democratic rival Scott Stringer in the primary for city comptroller, 48% to 33%.
In the mayoral race, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner pulled into the lead over his Democratic rivals, with 25% of the vote compared to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s 22% and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson’s 11%. Weiner’s lead fell within the poll’s margin of error, which was 3.6%.
“Notoriety has earned the ‘Tabloid Twins,’ former Gov. Eliot Spitzer as Client 9 and former Congressman Anthony (Tweets) Weiner, good initial numbers in the polls,” Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
Black voters gave Spitzer and Weiner the biggest boosts in the poll, which surveyed 738 New Yorkers. Spitzer leads Stringer 61%-26% among black voters, while Weiner’s 31% was tops among mayoral hopefuls.
Surprisingly, more women backed Spitzer, who resigned as governor in 2008 amid a prostitution scandal, with 44% of the vote; Stringer had 32%. Weiner, who left office in 2011 after he revealed he sent lewd photos of himself to several women online, had 21%, two points shy of Quinn, who had 23%.
Spitzer said he was pleased with the results but didn’t want to focus on surveys.
“While I didn’t take a poll to enter this race, the results of these early polls are gratifying,” he said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Stringer cautioned that the race is still early. Stringer “has received an outpouring of grassroots support from across the city, and we’re confident that as more voters get to know Scott he will be the obvious choice for comptroller,” spokeswoman Audrey Gelman said.
Mike Morey, a campaign spokesman for Quinn, said the candidate didn’t pay too much attention to the statistics. “The polling in this race will continue to change from week to week,” he said in a statement.
Weiner’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment about the poll before press time.
