New Yorkers say they’re ready for a woman mayor.
They’re not as ready to have another business executive calling the shots at City Hall.
Those were the findings of a Quinnipiac University poll released today that asked voters to rate race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and a business resume as factors in the mayoral race.
On just about every count, New Yorkers described themselves as open-minded and unbiased.
A female candidate? Twenty-seven percent said they’d be “enthusiastic” about her and 64 percent said they’d be “comfortable with” a woman contender.
An African-American candidate drew comparable numbers of 18 and 71 percent. An Hispanic candidate was at 17 and 72 percent. An Asian pulled 15 and 72 percent.
A gay or a lesbian candidate was at the 15 and 63 percent mark.
The biggest falloff came when the question turned to a hypothetical “business executive candidate.” That registered only 10 percent on the enthusiasm meter and 47 percent in the “comfortable with” category.
“They’re true to one stereotype of a super-liberal city — only being a business executive draws significant negative votes in a mayoral candidate,” said pollster Maurice Carroll.
The only woman in the mayoral race is City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. She’s also the only openly gay candidate.
The poll conducted Feb. 20-25 didn’t show much movement in the Democratic primary field.
Quinn maintained her lead at 37 percent; Public Advocate Bill deBlasio moved up to 14 percent, followed by former Comptroller Bill Thompson at 11 percent and Comptroller John Liu at 9. Former City Councilman Sal Albanese got the brush off and wasn’t included.
The Republican field remained an enigma to most voters, with 66 percent saying they hadn’t heard enough about frontrunner Joe Lhota to form an opinion. The other four Republicans had “don’t know enough” rates ranging from 81 to 93 percent.
Plans to increase taxes on the wealthy, which are being promoted by deBlasio and Liu, were popular. Fifty-five percent said they were more likely to vote for a candidate taking such a position, 17 percent said less likely and 26 percent said it wouldn’t matter either way.
Unless the state Legislature switches the primary elections from September to June, there’s still more than enough time for major shifts.
The poll surveyed 1,017 voters, including 655 Democrats.