City Council Speaker Christine Quinn registered 37 percent in a new mayoral poll released tonight — closer than ever to the 40 percent she would need to avoid a run-off in the Democratic primary.
The New York 1/Marist College survey showed all of Quinn’s opponents trailing badly, as they have in all previous polls at this early stage of the race.
Former Comptroller Bill Thompson came in at 13 percent; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio had 12 percent; Comptroller John Liu was at 9 percent; former City Councilman Sal Albanese clung to 2 per cent. One percent aligned with other candidates. The remaining 26 percent of voters were undecided.
“Right now, Quinn is in the driver’s seat, but the race is still very fluid,” said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff.
Under the election law, if no candidate reaches 40 percent in a citywide primary, the two with the most votes run again against each other to determine the winner.
Quinn has led every public poll thus far.
But insiders say most voters have yet to focus on the race, meaning the numbers are almost certain to shift in coming months.
For example, Quinn beat Thompson 29-24 percent among black voters. As the only black candidate, Thompson is likely to end up with 70 or 80 percent of the black vote if past trends hold.
In the Republican mayoral contest, 55 percent of voters were undecided.
Former MTA chairman Joe Lhota leads the wide open contest with 20 percent. Every one of five other possible contenders was in single digits.
But Lhota could have an important edge. The poll found that 71 percent of voters in the GOP primary would back a candidate endorsed by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and he’s backing Lhota, who served in his administration.
If the general election were held today, Lhota would get trounced by every Democrat.
Even Albanese, who’s been out of office for 15 years, would beat him 52 to 21 percent.
The poll suggested a comeback attempt by former Rep. Anthony Weiner would fall flat. His approval rating was only 30 percent, versus 46 percent who still don’t like the guy.
The Post reported earlier that Weiner has taken his own poll to determine if he’s got a shot at running this year for either mayor or comptroller after leaving office in the now-infamous sexting scandal.
The latest NY1/Marist poll was conducted Feb. 4-12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points on the Democratic side and plus or minus 7.5 percentage points in the Republican tally.