An overwhelming majority of New Yorkers don’t want politicians grilling Chick-fil-A.
A Quinnipiac University poll being released today found that voters by a lopsided 83-11 percent margin feel elected officials shouldn’t try to discourage people from patronizing the fast food chain just because its CEO openly opposes gay marriage.
By a similar 82-12 percent margin, they called on pols not to interfere in the government permitting process for the popular chicken sandwich shops.
“New Yorkers may disagree with what you say, but they defend your right to sell chicken,” said poll director Maurice Carroll.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is openly gay, sparked an uproar a couple of weeks ago when she fired off a letter to NYU demanding it get rid of its Chick-fil-A branch on the grounds that businesses that discriminate don’t belong here.
It happens that the NYU outlet is the only one in the city — and it’s closed for the summer.
NYU said it would refer the matter to its University Senate in the fall. Quinn clarified her position to say that she has no legal power to block the store no matter how much she deplores its CEO’s positions.
The controversy didn’t make a dent in Quinn’s popularity.
She still leads the 2013 mayoral race with 29 percent of the vote, up from 26 percent in May. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson is second with 10 percent, while each of the other four contenders are in single digits. Thirty-four percent of voters are undecided, not surprising this far from the election.
Of the 1,298 voters surveyed, 69 percent had heard about the flap over which comes first — the chicken or the politics.
As tolerant as New Yorkers claim to be, the poll found significant levels of discrimination against candidates running for office with certain attributes.
Voters said they were 30 percent less likely to vote for an atheist; 27 percent less likely for a “born again” candidate; 24 percent less likely for a Mormon, 19 percent less likely for a Muslim and 16 percent less likely for someone who is overweight or obese. Gay candidates lost 10 percent of the electorate from the start.
Female candidates, on the other hand, had a 14 percent edge primarily because 20 percent of women said they were more likely to vote for one of their own.
The poll was conducted Aug. 8-12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent.