Metro

Mayoral candidates make final pitches

The mayoral candidates are digging in Monday for their last-ditch efforts to win over voters ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary —- as a new poll shows Bill de Blasio within one percentage point of an outright win.

The Quinnipiac University survey has de Blasio leading with 39 percent, followed by 25 percent for former Comptroller Bill Thompson and 18 percent for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Eight percent of voters were undecided.

Under state election law, a candidate needs 40 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff with the second-place finisher.

“Remember that there are no undecided voters on Election Day. If de Blasio picks up just a few of those undecided voters, he’s over the top,” Quinnipiac polling director Maurice Carroll said.

But on WWRL radio Monday morning, de Blasio predicted he was unlikely to clear that hurdle.

“I think there’ll be a runoff,” he declared.

With every public poll showing de Blasio ahead by a wide margin, Quinn conceded that she’s in a duel with Thomspon for the No. 2 spot.

“I think tomorrow is a race to get into the runoff,” she said.

Outside PS 58 in Carroll Gardens, where de Blasio formerly served on the school board, he said: “We’re simply saying that the numbers say there will be a runoff. We want people to be clear about that and to be girded for the next phase of this battle.”

De Blasio, who was joined by wife Chirlane McCray, also said they had dropped off their son Dante – currently starring in a controversial campaign commercial for his dad – at Brooklyn Tech, where he was “grudgingly ready” for the first day of the new school year.

Thompson got a head start on the day by kicking off a 24-hour campaign tour of the city early Monday.

Bill ThompsonRiyad Hasan

Thompson started at 7 a.m. in front of his childhood home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where he was joined by several union leaders, including Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers, as well as U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Walter Mosley (D-Brooklyn).

He then greeted parents outside PS 262, where his mom, Elaine Thompson taught for most of her 26-year career.

“This is the city that never sleeps. I guess I’m not going to sleep for the next 24 hours,” Thompson said.

The campaign swing will mark Thompson’s second round-the-clock bid at barnstorming for votes in Tuesday’s primary election.

Quinn – who pushed for a new state law requiring kindergarten classes for city kids – greeted parents dropping off students at PS 333 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Christine QuinnHelayne Seidman

“Kindergarten is mandatory because of legislation I got passed in Albany,” she said.

“So I’m here today to make kind of a final pitch to parents, that if you want a mayor who both has a vision to improve education, a vision and a plan to stop teaching to the test, a plan to improve teacher training, a plan to involve and engage parents, and a progressive mayor who’s already delivered for school children, made kindergarten mandatory, expanded full-day pre-K by 10,000 seats — then I’m your candidate for mayor.”

Disgraced Democratic ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner went on the defensive during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show when pressed about his relationship with wife Huma Abedin, fueling speculation that their trouble marriage is kaput.

Co-host Savannah Guthrie noted that while Weiner’s first campaign commercial showed Abedin sitting next to him on the stoop of his boyhood home in Brooklyn, the serial sexter sat there alone for his final ad.

Anthony WeinerZUMAPRESS.com

“First of all, she wasn’t a big part of my rollout. She was four seconds in the opening video. She wasn’t on the campaign trail for, like, a month thereafter and every one says, ‘Where’s Huma? Where’s Huma?’” Weiner said.

“She came out for a couple of days, so let’s dial down how she was a whole big part….It was always about me and about the issues in the campaign and frankly it was also about the mistakes I made in my personal life.”

Weiner also said he wouldn’t run again for Congress, saying it’s “not that good a job anymore.”

Billionaire Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis began the day glad handing at the Arrochar Friendship Club on Staten Island, where he doled out goody bags stuffed with political paraphernalia to seniors boarding a bus to Atlantic City.

“As of Saturday, I’m one of you,” he said.

“I’ll be 65 and I’m worried about Social Security too, which I’ll never collect.”

The Gristede’s supermarket magnate wore his signature red tie with pictures of two doves on it — which he designed for his daughter’s $1 million-plus wedding in 2011.

“I’ve been wearing this tie for two weeks. If it isn’t a lucky tie, I’m gonna burn it,” he joked.

John CatsimatidisSteve White

GOP front-runner Joe Lhota, a big fan of “The Godfather,” was set to hold an event at a Staten Island community center near a church that figured in the famed film’s climax, during which Al Pacino’s character attends a baptism as his henchman assassinate his mob rivals.

Democratic comptroller candidate Scott Stringer began the day by pressing the flesh outside the Franklin Avenue subway station in Brooklyn with Assemblyman Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn).

“I’m Karim-approved,” Stringer said as he introduced himself to passers-by.

The outgoing Manhattan Borough President also said he was excited by the results of the Quinnipiac poll, which showed him leading with 50 percent to 43 percent for ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.