Erick Salgado, a candidate in the Democratic Primary for mayor who received two percent in the most recent Marist Poll, with a six percent showing in the Bronx, raised the question today, “Could the Quinnipiac Poll have an agenda to suppress or ignore the Latino community’s impact on the race?”

Salgado, the sole Latino candidate in the Primary, is not included in the Quinnipiac poll. The candidate wrote to the poll in late June, but failed to receive a substantial response.

“Rather than addressing the serious issue of my exclusion, Quinnipiac’s response was, ‘I will forward your request to our spokesperson for NYC polls and to the director.’ Two mayoral polls later, I’m still not included,” Salgado stated.

In a letter to Maurice Carroll, Quinnipiac University Polling Institute’s director dated today Salgado wrote, “As the only Latino candidate in the Democratic Primary for Mayor in New York City, it has been suggested by many that my exclusion from your poll may be an attempt to suppress or ignore the growing influence of this community that comprises 30 percent of New York City’s Democratic voters. Will this population have a significant influence on the mayoral race? How can we know if my supporters are forced to opt for ‘other’ when given a list of candidates from which to choose?”

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Salgado’s letter continued, “This exclusion is occurring as I am garnering increasing media attention and another major New York City mayoral poll shows me at two percent, 100 percent ahead of one of my opponents, Sal Albanese (who is included in your poll).…Voters are endorsing my candidacy, yet Quinnipiac refuses to provide them with the opportunity of expressing their support. I have to ask why? It certainly isn’t because your statisticians were unaware of my candidacy, given my previous letter and media mentions.”

“If Quinnipiac is truly dedicated to the pursuit of accurate predictions of a political race’s results, it has a responsibility to provide its universe of respondents with a complete list of candidates. This means including my name on that list. Let the voters (respondents) decide,” Salgado’s letter concludes.

(YWN Desk – NYC)