It’s not only a mess in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, Republican voters are also expressing their minds on whom they want to see succeed Michael Bloomberg as the third consecutive Republican mayor. According to a new NBC4/WSJ poll, of registered republican voters, conducted by Marist Institute, John Catsimatidis has managed to erase Joe Lhota’s solid lead to a tie within the margin of error.

Among registered Republicans, former MTA chairman Joseph Lhota leads his closest competitor John Catsimatidis, 28 percent to 21 percent, a 13 point jump since last month’s Marist poll that showed Mr. Catsimatidis with a mere 8 percent. George McDonald is in third place with 10 percent. Forty percent of Republican voters remain undecided. The poll surveyed 123 Republicans and has a margin of error of 8.8 percentage points for those results.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Lhota said the polls showed momentum was in his favor, while Mr. Catsimatidis touted his 13 point bump as an indication that he will ultimately win.

@JoeLhota, watch out for Cats claw: @JCats2013 up 13 pts in latest @WSJ/ Marist poll. A statistical dead heat now: http://t.co/l9nZ74tBfY

— John Catsimatidis (@JCats2013) June 25, 2013

With over 60 ‘friendraiser’ events (Catsimatidis’s nickname to the free at no cost events) so far, Mr. Catsimatidis seems to have reached out to enough Republican voters in order to compete with Mr. Lhota’s high profile status. Hence, a poll sample of 123 voters seems more like a unscientific street poll with no indication on the outcome on primary day.

A spokesman for Mr. McDonald told the WSJ the poll suggests his focus on creating jobs is resonating.

In a general election one-on-one matchup, however, all of the Democratic candidates beat hands up whoever the Republican nominee is, the Marist poll shows. Ms. Quinn, Mr. de Blasio and John Liu are the weakest, of the viable candidates, when matched up against John Catsimatidis, while Anthony Weiner would be the weakest Democratic candidate against Joe Lhota.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)