Other than Anthony Weiner leapfrogging to  the front in the polls, Bill Thompson, who almost defeated mayor Bloomberg in 2009, also surged ahead of the remaining candidates in the so far volatile race for mayor of New York City.

A Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday afternoon shows the three leading Democrats in a statistical tie, with Christine Quinn at 19 percent, Weiner at 17 percent and Thompson at 16 percent. In Quinnipiac’s April poll, shortly after Weiner revealed he was considering running, Thompson finished in fourth place with 10 percent – 18 points behind Quinn.

“Bill Thompson’s moving up to make it a three-way race, an absolute, even-steven three-way race for mayor of New York,” said Maurice Carroll of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The NBC4/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll on Tuesday, which shows Weiner in the lead, also showed Mr. Thompson pulling ahead in a solid third place with 13 percent among likely primary voters, only 7 points behind Quinn to get to second place and in the runoff. In the previous Marist poll, Mr. Thompson finished 11 points behind Quinn.

“The [Quinnipiac poll] numbers represent a drop 6 percent drop for Quinn from last month’s Quinnipiac poll, when she had 25 percent of the Democratic primary vote. Thompson gained 6 percent and Weiner gained only 2 percent,” Azi Paybarah notes.

While Quinn and Weiner both developed a certain negativity view towards them, Mr. Thompson’s low standing is due to the fact that he remains largely unknown to a majority of voters. In the Quinnipiac poll, Mr. Thompson scored a 45-11 favorability rating, with 42 percent saying they haven’t heard enough about him to have an opinion.

Will the UFT endorsement give him the boost to surge full speed ahead or will Thompson solidify minority base behind his candidacy, enough to secure at least a place in the runoff, remains to be seen. As of now, Mr. Thompson is still to be considered a “might become the next mayor”.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)