The wind had his back.
Mayor Bloomberg’s approval ratings shot up 17 points following his faultless performance during Hurricane Irene, according to a Quinnipiac University released yesterday.
The mayor’s popularity stood at 54 percent positive, 35 percent negative. In the previous Quinnipiac poll, in July, the tally stood at 45 percent positive, 43 percent negative, a leftover from the botched handling of last Christmas’ blizzard.
“People were glad the city went to the extremes it did,” political consultant Joseph Mercurio said, a reference to the first mandatory evacuation ever ordered by a New York City mayor.
Ninety percent of 1,282 voters questioned between Sept. 1 and 6 agreed with the evacuation order; 86 percent praised the mayor’s handling of the storm.