Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota may want to talk about the issues and introduce himself to NYC voters as someone that is on their side of certain issues, but it seems like New York City voters have fallen in love with Bill de Blasio.

With just a month to go, 68 percent of likely voters support Bill de Blasio’s candidacy over Joe Lhota, who garners only 19% of support, according to a new Siena Research poll conducted for the NY Times and published Friday morning.

A majority of voters in New York City want to keep Raymond W. Kelly as police commissioner (62%), want more charter schools (56%) and nearly half of them (47%) support the Police Department’s use of the stop-and-frisk tactic.

But the city’s voters are planning to support Bill de Blasio for mayor next month, despite the fact that Mr. de Blasio opposes each of those positions. Voters seem to know more about Mr. de Blasio, know less about Mr. Lhota and seem to trust Mr. de Blasio and like him.

“Voters agree with Joe on the issues. They just don’t realize that they agree with him enough to support him,” a campaign advisor told YWN.

More than 4 in 10 likely voters said they had no opinion of Mr. Lhota, while only about a quarter did not have an opinion of Mr. de Blasio. And 58 percent had a favorable opinion of Mr. de Blasio, compared with 22 percent who viewed Mr. Lhota favorably.

“The race is not over: the two men have agreed to televised debates on three successive Tuesdays this month, and those exchanges, as well as the television ads, will introduce the candidates to New Yorkers who have not yet tuned in,” the NY Times writes.

But the poll found extraordinarily daunting odds against Mr. Lhota, as Mr. de Blasio’s lead cuts across just about every category: he leads among voters regardless of age, race, gender, and income and education level.

Mr. de Blasio leads among Black voters with 89% of support, with 37% who believe he’s a moderate compared to 60% of all voters who think Mr. de Blasio is a liberal (33% very liberal; 27% somewhat liberal ).

While conventional wisdom says former mayor Rudy Giuliani and mayor Michael Bloomberg hurt Mr. Lhota, the poll showed them actually in good standing to introduce Lhota to voters, if they intend to do so.

According to the Siena poll, 48% have a favorable opinion of Mr. Giuliani (45% unfavorable) and 46% have a favorable opinion of Mayor Bloomberg, compared to only 22% who have a favorable opinion of Mr. Lhota. 40% have not heard enough of Joe Lhota to form an opinion. 47 percent of voters between the ages of 18 to 44 haven’t heard enough of Mr. Lhota. Which suggests that Mr. Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg remain assets, rather than a liability, for Mr. Lhota.

Joe Lhota’s standing is somewhat better among Jewish voters, who counts as 14% of the electorate on election day, according to the Siena research poll. In contrast to his humongous lead among all voters, Mr. de Blasio leads Mr. Lhota by only 23 points (53-30) among Jewish voters.

Mr. Lhota has an edge over Mr. de Blasio when it comes to the ability to manage NYC’s complex government, keeping the City safe from crime, improving economic development and reducing taxes and regulations in order to create and sustain a climate of job growth over lessening the gap between the rich and the poor, Mr. Lhota also has the edge as to who’s tough enough to make hard decisions.

On all the other issues, as well as likeability, Mr. de Blasio has a slight or marginal lead over Mr. Lhota.

50 percent of Jewish voters think Mr. de Blasio understands the needs and problems of people like themselves. 30% think the same about Mr. Lhota.

74% of Jewish voters think Mr. de Blasio is very/somewhat liberal, with 49% saying he’s too liberal. 41% think he’s just about right on the issues at great concern.

In comparison, only 46% think Mr. Lhota is somewhat/very conservative, while 32% believe he’s moderate. Nonetheless, 54% think he’s too conservative on most of the issues. 38% think he’s just about right.

In courting the Jewish vote, Mr. Lhota can also consider former mayor Rudy Giuliani as an asset and a valuable surrogate. 59% of Jewish voters have a favorable opinion of Mr. Giuliani while 38% have an unfavorable opinion. Mr. Giuliani’s positive standing among Orthodox Jewish voters is considered to be at a higher level, too.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)