A Hillary Clinton vs. Bill de Blasio match-up for New York City mayor would be a blowout, at least according to a recent Quinnipiac University Poll of city voters.
The public opinion polling center based at the Connecticut university puts Clinton up by nearly 20 points should she choose to challenge the incumbent mayor, who defeated Republican Joe Lhota in 2013 with more than 73 percent of the vote.
“In a very hypothetical race for New York City Mayor, Hillary Clinton, running as an independent, tops incumbent Bill de Blasio, running as a Democrat, 49 – 30 percent,” the pollster wrote in a release Wednesday.
“Mayor de Blasio gets a divided 45 – 46 percent job approval rating, little changed from a 47 – 47 percent approval rating in a November 16 survey …. The mayor does not deserve reelection, New York City voters say 49 – 42 percent.”
“In the Clinton – de Blasio matchup, Clinton leads 61 – 29 percent among Democrats and 45 – 31 percent among independent voters. Republicans back de Blasio 28 – 18 percent. She leads among men and women and black, white and Hispanic voters. She also leads in every borough except Staten Island, which goes to de Blasio 28 – 22 percent,” according to Quinnipiac.
Clinton was the only one of numerous potential challengers that could unseat the city’s 109th mayor. Other possible primary challengers posed to voters in the poll included former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and State Sen. Tony Avella.
The poll showed similar results with de Blasio running as a Democrat and others as independents.
“New Yorkers aren’t in love with Mayor Bill de Blasio, but they seem to like him better than other possible choices – except Hillary Clinton, who probably is an impossible choice,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
“None of the possible contenders has made any real noise or spent any money, so this race still could get interesting.”
And while the new poll, which questioned 1,138 New York City voters between Jan. 11 and 17, shows Clinton besting de Blasio, the former Secretary of State and loser of the 2016 presidential election has not expressed any interest publicly in the position, AM New York reports.
There’s also the issue with the reliability of political polling, as demonstrated by President-elect Donald Trump’s historic upset of Clinton in November.
Quinnipiac – and other pollsters – showed Clinton defeating Trump in the key states of Florida and North Carolina the day before the 2016 presidential election, both states Trump ultimately won.
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