De Blasio Up 50 Points Over Lhota In Latest Poll

October 3, 2013 7:55 AM

BY Mara Gay

It's a landslide.
Democrat Bill de Blasio is leading Joe Lhota 71-21% among likely voters in a Quinnipiac Poll released Thursday morning, a stunning 50-point lead that could prove difficult to overcome with just weeks to go in the mayor's race.
"These numbers say Public Advocate Bill de Blasio's kids can start arguing over who gets the best bedroom in Gracie Mansion," Quinnipiac University Polling Institute director Maurice Carroll said simply Thursday in a statement.
Carroll said the attacks the Democrat has fielded over his name changes, his support for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua as a young man in the 1980s and his honeymoon to Cuba with wife Chirlane McCray appear to have fallen on deaf ears with voters.
They "don't seem to have any effect," Carroll said.
The poll also showed a yawning likeability gap between the candidates, with 69% of voters calling de Blasio "favorable," versus 19% who do not.
Lhota did not fare as well, with 36% of likely voters saying they have an unfavorable view of the Republican, 26% saying they have a favorable view and another 33% who say they don't know enough about him to have an opinion.
And de Blasio supporters are more revved up about the candidate than ever. According to the poll, 38% of de Blasio supporters are "enthusiastic" about the candidate, while 49% are "somewhat enthusiastic." On the Republican side, only 26% of Lhota supporters are "enthusiastic," and 54% are "somewhat enthusiastic."
The poll also showed a racial gap among likely voters, with black likely voters backing the Democrat over the Republican 90-6%, Hispanic likely voters supporting de Blasio 79-10% over Lhota, while white likely voters support de Blasio over Lhota by a much smaller margin, 55-40%.
The poll also showed some interesting findings on stop and frisk. While a slight majority of 51% of likely voters said they believe the controversial police tactic is "excessive and harasses innocent people," a majority of 61% want the next police commissioner to be chosen from within the ranks of the NYPD anyway. Just 24% say the person to replace Police Commissioner Ray Kelly should be a "fresh face,"