Little-known Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has caught up to the mighty “Steamroller” in the race for Comptroller — wiping out a 19-point deficit in just two weeks, according to new poll numbers.
The survey of Democrats likely to vote in the September 10th primary now shows Stringer in a dead heat with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer — 46 to 46.
Only two weeks earlier, Spitzer — who had been well ahead in the polls since he first stepped into the race in early July — had a commanding 56 to 37 percent lead.
But Stringer has won countless of strong endorsements from celebrities and media firms alike in recent weeks — including the support of The Post and the city’s two other major dailies.
“The entire political and media world has jumped on Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s bandwagon, helping him poll-vault from 19 points down to dead even in just two weeks,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. The numbers showed no major gender gaps, but had the majority of white voters backing Stringers and the bulk of black voters standing with Spitzer.
Stringer, a veteran of city politics but one who hasn’t garnered splashy headlines over the years, has been arguing from the get-go that Spitzer was riding a wave of notoriety — albeit a negative one.
Spitzer resigned from the Governor’s seat in 2008 after he got caught soliciting hookers as part of a federal sting. He wasn’t charged with any crimes at the time.
The self-dubbed “steamroller” — who was known for his hard-charging ways both as governor and as New York’s Attorney General — has been self-funding his campaign.
He had been much less publicly visible than his rival throughout the race, but has recently begun attacking Stringer more directly. “Did the avalanche of media criticism knock Spitzer out of the lead?”
asked Carroll. “Among self-described ‘very liberal’ voters, Stringer is way ahead. He leads among the college-educated, while Spitzer leads among those without a college degree.”