Name: Yang holds commanding lead in mayor’s race: new poll
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Yang holds commanding lead in mayor’s race: new poll

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AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsFeb 10, 2021 at 10:40 amAndrew Yang commands a double-digit lead in the Democrat primary for mayor, with his closest rivals, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Comptroller Scott Stringer, trailing by more than 10 percentage points each, a new poll released early Wednesday morning revealed.Yang, an entrepreneur, would win 28% of total votes, with Adams projected to win 17% and Stringer getting 13%, according to the poll conducted by Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics. Shaun Donovan and Maya Wiley would get 8% of the vote each, while Kathryn Garcia, Ray McGuire and Dianne Morales scored just 2% apiece.AdvertisementThose numbers reflect what operatives for campaigns other than Yang’s have been quietly saying for days — that if the election happened tomorrow, Yang would almost certainly win.One key reason is that New Yorkers know who he is. Yang’s name recognition far exceeds that of his competitors, the poll also found.AdvertisementOf the 842 likely primary voters polled, 84% have heard of Yang, while 66% have heard of Stringer and 60% know Adams by name.Donovan, Wiley and Garcia are far less well-known, despite each having had experience in government, with Donovan having served as a former top official under President Obama, Wiley as one of Mayor de Blasio’s top legal advisers and Garcia as the city’s former sanitation commissioner. Despite their experience, they are household names to only 33% of those polled. Even fewer voters have heard of McGuire, a former Citigroup exec, and Morales, who headed a non-profit, with only 25% recognizing their names.Adam Rosenblatt, president of Core Decision Analytics, was quick to add a caveat to the newly released data, though.The poll was conducted from Jan. 20-25, right after Yang received loads of media attention for launching his mayoral campaign and for his efforts to help Democrats win two contested Senate seats in Georgia. Since then, Rosenblatt said, public sentiment has likely shifted somewhat given several Yang stumbles that came to light after the poll was conducted.“I’d say these have fallen quite a bit,” Rosenblatt said of Yang’s positive numbers. “The race is quite fluid. There are several candidates who have a lot of people saying, ‘I would consider this candidate. Either I would definitely vote for this candidate, or I would probably vote for this candidate.’”The poll did not directly account for ranked-choice voting, but it suggests many of those who were polled view multiple candidates positively.At least half said they were likely to vote for Yang, Stringer and Adams, with 47% saying they’d be likely to vote for Donovan and 45% reporting they’d likely vote for Wiley.The pollster is planning to release a new survey next month, after candidates are required to register their latest political contributions with the city Campaign Finance Board in mid-March. That date is important because it’s when candidates like Garcia and Morales will learn whether they qualified for matching funds, which is likely to have a bearing on whether they remain in the race.Advertisement“If they can’t get public financing, it’s going to be very difficult for them to compete with any of the other candidates who are getting public financing, or Ray McGuire, who has three, almost $4 million on hand already,” said George Fontas, a government affairs consultant whose firm sponsored the poll.Having a respectable campaign war chest is certainly an advantage McGuire holds, despite not opting into public financing, but Fontas said that with low name recognition and his past experience on Wall Street, McGuire still has a lot of work cut out for him if he’s to emerge from the pack.“I’m really surprised by how Ray McGuire performs here,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot for him to move these bars back and forth if he’s going to seriously compete.”Response to another question posed in the poll also doesn’t bode well for McGuire — or for Yang, for that matter.While Yang’s early lead would seem to indicate that New Yorkers have grown weary of a political insider in City Hall over the last eight years, the polling data suggests voters are looking for someone with government experience.In what could easily be viewed as a repudiation to President Trump’s disastrous one term, 72% of voters polled said proven experience in government is extremely or very important to them, while only 44% said business experience is as important.AdvertisementFontas and Rosenblatt pointed out that that sort of sentiment in the long haul could benefit Donovan, Garcia, Wiley, Stringer or Adams.“It bodes well for all of those government folks,” Fontas said. “It’s about articulating clear solutions for the city and convincing residents that they can actually bring those solutions home. It’s not just about vision.” Advertisement

AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsFeb 10, 2021 at 10:40 amAndrew Yang commands a double-digit lead in the Democrat primary for mayor, with his closest rivals, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Comptroller Scott Stringer, trailing by more than 10 percentage points each, a new poll released early Wednesday morning revealed.Yang, an entrepreneur, would win 28% of total votes, with Adams projected to win 17% and Stringer getting 13%, according to the poll conducted by Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics. Shaun Donovan and Maya Wiley would get 8% of the vote each, while Kathryn...

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Yang holds commanding lead in mayor’s race: new poll

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