With the election less than two weeks away, Mr. Thompson has fallen further behind Mr. Bloomberg, the two-term incumbent, and now trails by 16 percentage points among likely voters, with 52 percent saying they would vote for Mr. Bloomberg, and 36 percent for Mr. Thompson. In a previous Marist survey in September, Mr. Thompson was behind by 9 percentage points, 52 percent to 43 percent.

Mr. Bloomberg, an independent who is running as a Republican, also remains fairly popular among city residents. The survey found that 58 percent of registered voters approve of the job he has done in eight years; in September, that figure was 59 percent.

The sample size was relatively small – out of 885 city residents who were surveyed by phone between Oct. 19 and 21, 744 were registered voters, and 390 were identified as likely voters. The margin of error is plus or minus five percentage points.

Still, the poll offers the latest evidence that Mr. Thompson is fast running out of time, and that Mr. Bloomberg’s ads attacking Mr. Thompson’s record on education and pension fund record have seemingly taken their toll. In September, 22 percent of those surveyed had a bad impression of Mr. Thompson; now it is 33 percent. And a plurality of Democrats now say that they will support Mr. Bloomberg over Mr. Thompson; last month, Mr. Thompson was the pick of a majority of Democrats.

The Thompson campaign released a statement in response to the poll:

“The key to this poll is that among the larger sample size of 744 NYC registered voters, the race is 47% for Mike Bloomberg and 38% for Bill Thompson – only a 9 point spread. Despite nearly the $100 million he has spent trying to buy this campaign, the Mayor is still under 50%, with 12% undecided. This is still a very open race and we are very optimistic.”

(NY Times / YWN World Headquaters – NYC)