On the same day that he took the plunge into the mayor’s race, voters told Anthony Weiner he’s not cutting the mustard with them.
The timing was coincidental, but a Quinnipiac University poll was released this morning just hours after Weiner ended months of speculation by declaring his candidacy via video.
The poll showed the frisky former Congressman has less support today than he did last month, before the launch of an orchestrated campaign to rehabilitate his image as a serial tweeter with a lewd bent.
On the question of should he or shouldn’t he run, the answer came back 49 percent no and 38 percent yes.
That means Weiner’s task in convincing voters the sexting scandal is behind him is tougher today than it was last month.
In the previous Q poll released April 19, the split was a more sympathetic 44 percent against and 41 percent in favor of Weiner’s candidacy.
There was only slight movement on the match-ups among the other candidates.
Christine Quinn, the City Council Speaker, fell from 28 to 25 percent. She remained the frontrunner, but the drop was her third in a row, from a high of 37 percent recorded in February.
Perhaps more worrisome for Quinn was a steady erosion in her approval rating from 65-18 percent in November to the current 53-30 percent.
Weiner remained at 15 percent, followed by former Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio tied at 10, former Comptroller John Liu at 6 and former Councilman Sal Albanese at 2. Twenty-seven percent of voters were undecided.
Pollster Maurice Carroll said the latest numbers indicate no one will likely reach the 40 percent mark needed to avert a runoff.
“The poll says there’s a runoff,” he said. “It just doesn’t say who’s in the runoff.”
Those outside the Democratic field hoping to become mayor seem to have their work cut out for them.
Republican Joe Lhota would lose to any Democrat 61 to 13 percent.
Only one percent of voters said they’d “definitely” go with Adolfo Carrion on the Independence Party line. Another 11 percent said they “probably” would.
Even Police Commissioner Ray Kelly would grab only 32 percent of the electorate if he decided to take a shot at running for mayor as an independent candidate not affiliated with any party.
Only a couple of issues made a stark difference to voters.
Forty-five percent said they’d be more likely to support a candidate who favored an inspector general for the NYPD, compared to 18 percent who said they’d be less likely.
Raising taxes on the rich, which has become a battle cry for deBlasio, would make 56 percent of voters more likely to back a candidate and only 15 percent less likely.
The much discussed bicycle sharing program was a net plus for those candidates rolling with it. Thirty percent of voters were ready to get behind the bike banner, while 20 percent were not.
The numbers were the most lopsided in Manhattan with a 41-14 percent divide in favor of a two-wheel candidate.
The poll was conducted May 14-20. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.