He has the highest approval rating of any city official, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly would still lose to the top Democratic candidates if he decided to run for mayor and the election were held today.
A new Quinnipiac University poll showed Kelly running as a Republican would get trounced in head-to-head showdowns against City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
Quinn emerged ahead 48-33 percent, the others by an identical 46-34 percent. Other potential contenders in the mayoral race — Comptroller John Liu, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and media executive Tom Allon — were not matched up against Kelly.
Pollster Maurice Carroll said Kelly’s poor showing was directly tied to the city’s lopsided 5-to-1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans.
“Ray Kelly is a great police commissioner and he’d be a good mayor, New Yorkers think — but it’s still a Democratic town,” noted Carroll.
Respondents thought Kelly would make a good mayor by a 50-34 percent margin.
The poll of 1,066 voters was conducted May 3-8. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.