Results tagged “polls”

While the majority of Americans aren't happy with the plan to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City, more New Yorkers support the plan than oppose it, according to two new studies. Based on findings from a nationwide phone survey by Rasmussen Reports, 51 percent of Americans think it's a bad idea to host the trials in the city, while 29 percent of respondents favor the proposal to move the suspects from Guantanamo Bay to Lower Manhattan.

Though the end result of last night's mayoral election doesn't come as much of a surprise, the closeness of the race shocked a lot of onlookers. After running a record-breaking $100 million campaign that won major endorsements and blanketed the city in nearly non-stop advertising, Mayor Bloomberg defeated the underfunded Democratic candidate Bill Thompson by only 5 percent of the vote, winning with 51 percent to his rival's 46. This comes after polls from the days before the election predicted Bloomberg ahead by double digit — some even anticipating a win almost as large as his 20 percent victory in 2005. The pollsters might have some explaining to do.

A new Marist poll showed that incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg leads challenger City Comptroller William Thompson by 15 points among likely voters, 53% to 38%. What's more, the poll notes, "Mayor Bloomberg’s action to extend term limits from two to three terms is not a deciding factor for 45% of voters. Although a large proportion of voters — 43% — says it makes them less likely to vote for the mayor, this number has not grown through the course of the campaign."

Mayor Bloomberg's expansive and record-spending campaign for a third term must be doing its job effectively with the latest poll showing his lead expanding—but damn it if it isn't driving New Yorkers c-razy! The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that 78 percent of New Yorkers have seen the mayor's ads (20% more than last month!), but almost half find them to be "annoying," more than those who see them as "informative." Today's Times has a front page article about Bloomberg's reelection bid being "most meticulous campaign in New York City’s history." The paper goes inside headquarters to find workers "condensing and cataloging (voters) into tiny data points" with workers on hand who speak Farsi and Tagalog among the many languages they cover. Also: "His field team is so persistent that, when volunteers call to solicit voters’ support, some report that they have already been called by the campaign — three times." Despite a Quinnipiac pollster saying "Mayor Mike might be wasting his money on that zillion-dollar TV buy," Bloomberg stretched his lead over Bill Thompson to 50-35%, a five point gain from last month. Maybe people secretly love picturing a Mr. Feeny-like Bloomberg as he's depicted in the spot after the jump.

With the latest poll showing Governor Paterson now trailing Andrew Cuomo by a margin of over 4:1, state Democrats are continuing to quietly take one more step away from the governor and his election hopes while his attention is elsewhere. When asked if polls were giving him pause, Paterson said, “No, but where there is no pause is [in] the seemingly excessive printing of political polls. If there were one or two, I might have actually thought about it, but because there are 50, I’m finding it curiously odd." A new piece on the state of the campaign in the Observer quotes Democratic leaders saying that Paterson's time limit might be the end of the year before officials begin forcing him aside, possibly even sooner before labor leaders call for him not to run. The Paterson campaign seems to be counting on his continued hard-line stance against an unpopular legislature to give him a boost, but few seem to be giving Paterson good odds at gaining much traction against a headstrong state senate. One Democratic chair upstate says, “I’m going to see what Paterson decides. Things could happen. Maybe Obama will appoint him ambassador or something and he won’t run.”

Governor Paterson's prospects at getting elected next year continue to dwindle as the latest poll shows Andrew Cuomo running away with a head-to-head match-up in a landslide. The newest Quinnipiac poll shows Cuomo trouncing the governor by a margin of 61-15% among registered Democrats. Paterson may have hoped to see some gains after a month which he took a hard-line stance against the chaos in the state senate and appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor despite objections to the move's legality. But his poll numbers continue to move the same direction they have throughout all of '09, with only 26% of New Yorkers saying they have a favorable view of the governor. As for Cuomo, he extended his lead in a hypothetical race against Rudy Giuliani to 48-39%—Giuliani has already began showing signs of shying away from a run, something that seems even less likely if Paterson is pushed aside. The governor continues to watch even the black vote slip away from him—with Cuomo now showing a 20 point lead among African-Americans. One prominent Democrat told the News, "I don't know how (Paterson) can run."

Travel & Leisure Magazine released its 2008 lists of "America's Favorite Cities" conducted after polling 600,000 readers and the Big Apple came in ninth in the Most Attractive category, right in between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Denver. We wonder just how skin-deep Travel readers are in their assessment of just what makes a city's residents attractive since they voted New York #1 as being both "Most Stylish" and "Most Diverse." Maybe those polled had Monday morning regrets and were spurning New York after ranking us near the top as a place to spend a "Wild Weekend." Miami took the top spot as "Most Attractive" and New York also placed ninth behind top-rated Austin when it came to "Overall People."

Hillary Clinton's February flop continued today as voters in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. turned out for Barack Obama by nearly two-to-one margins (in D.C. he won by 75% to 24%). According to exit polls, Obama not only did well with young voters, blacks and independents but, surprisingly, with certain demographics Clinton's been counting on: senior citizens, women and blue collar voters. Polls suggest 49% of those who voted for Obama were white and voters over sixty backed Obama by 52%.

Today, the Republican presidential hopefuls are vying to win the Florida primary (the Democrats aren't allowing Florida delegates to count at the convention, because Florida moved its primary up). Polls close in two hours, and many believe that the state will be contested between John McCain and Mitt Romney. Our former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has spent much time in Florida, instead of campaigning in South Carolina, Iowa or New Hampshire (though he did spend a substantial amount of time in NH), seems like he may be in third place or even fourth, if Mike Huckabee does well.

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani visited Barrington, New Hampshire store The Christmas Dove yesterday during various campaign visits in the Granite State and bought a ceramic angel. Perhaps it was an angel of mercy, as he has begun to pull back NH-related advertising in order to concentrate on the Florida primary, implicitly acknowledging that he doesn't have a chance against Republican front runner Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain, who has surged into second place in NH polling.

Former New York City Mayor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is finding that his campaign for highest office is foundering in Florida--the state that his campaign has identified as a crucial crucible. The primary vote in the Sunshine State will occur on Jan. 29, and with approximately six weeks to go, Rudy's trailing competitors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. According to a survey conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen, Romney is tallying 27% support, followed by Huckabee with 23%, and then Giuliani with 19%. Giuliani's organization dismissed the results of the Rasmussen poll as unreliable.

The Siena College Research Institute released information on how New Yorkers feel about Governor Spitzer, and the news is bad. Thirteen months after Spitzer was elected overwhelmingly to office, he now has a rating of 36% favorable/51% unfavorable (sliding from 64-22 in June, 41-46 in November) and a job performance rating of 27% positive=70 negative (55-37 in June, 33-64 in November). Not only that, but Siena Poll spokesman Steven Greenberg said, "A majority of voters,...

Oprah Winfrey introduced one of her favorite things people at what the NY Times called "the largest spectacle of the campaign cycle" - the Oprah for Barack Obama rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Winfrey said, "For the very first time in my life, I feel compelled to stand up and to speak out for the man who I believe has a new vision for America," and told the audience of 15,000 said, "I am...

"Sleight of hand," "litany of needless fights," "ugly racial polarization" - just some of the phrases in this week's New York magazine's cover story about Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor turned presidential candidate. Chris Smith's article serves as both refresher to New Yorkers about Giuliani's reign as mayor with some fun tidbits (did you realize that then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik commissioned 30 miniature busts of himself?) as well as a cautionary tale to non-New Yorkers....

Governor Eliot Spitzer announced that he would ask the MTA to keep the base subway and bus fare at $2 yesterday morning, earning praise from elected officials and Mike Lupica, but it's hard for riders to truly weigh in, as the cost of unlimited Metrocards will probably be going up. About 85% of riders use the unlimited cards, and the director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, Bill Henderson, told the Post...

After heated debate and almost universal dislike from both parties and many NY residents for his controversial driver's license plan, Governor Spitzer has decided to shelve the idea. He is expected to announce the news today during a meeting with the Democratic congressional delegation, whose recently elected members have criticized the Governor for putting their positions in jeopardy with voters. The Governor spoke to the NY Times, "You have perhaps seen me struggle with it...

Governor Spitzer's revised plan to offer driver's licenses to all New York State residents - including illegal immigrants - is still not a hit with constituents. NY1 conducted a poll which found 55% of voters are opposed to the "three-tier plan" Spitzer revealed last week. Spitzer's original plan, which would have given illegal immigrants broad access to a regular driver's license, was hailed by immigrants' rights advocates and damned by county clerks and figures such...

It's Election Day, which means it's time for people to go to the polls. City offices and public schools are closed, and alternate side of the street parking is suspended, as are garbage and recycling pick-up. It's an optional state holiday; federal offices are open and there is mail delivery. While there aren't many big races, there are a few notable ones, namely the Staten Island District Attorney's race which pits incumbent Daniel Donovan (R)...

• Looking for some of the best coffee in the city? Ed Levine has a few suggestions, including some of our favorites, like Joe, the Art of Coffee and the Mud Spot.
• The Omnivore's Dilemma's Michael Pollan puts in his two cents about recent activity surrounding the Farm Bill, "However many worthwhile programs get tacked onto the farm bill to buy off its critics, they won’t bring meaningful reform to the American food system until the subsidies are addressed — until the underlying rules of the food game are rewritten."
• Congrats to Alain Ducasse, who is marrying his long term girlfriend Gwénaëlle Guéguen at the at the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz

The Associated Press and Ipsos asked Americans to pick which candidates would make the scariest Halloween costumes. Naturally, frontrunners Senator Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani won in their respective political parties (there were separate polls for the two parties). Clinton led Democrats with 37% while Giuliani had 14%, and no other candidates broke 6%, giving them resounding wins. And we found this interesting: "While a predictable two-thirds of Republicans picked [Clinton], she also was the choice of 18 percent of Democrats. Among members of her own party, that made her second only to Giuliani as the scariest costume."

Two explosive devices detonated outside the Mexican Consulate at 39th St. near Madison Ave. in Manhattan early this morning, breaking several windows but not injuring anyone. The devices were believed to be replica hand grenades of the sort that are normally sold as novelties, but in this instance were packed with gunpowder. The explosions occurred around 3:30 a.m. and a resident on the block called the police reporting them. It wasn't until employees at the consulate arrived for work this morning, however, and found the windows of their building shattered that the damage was connected with the earlier report of an explosion. At that point, the bomb squad and the FBI were called in to investigate.

Oh, Catholic League - it isn't even Halloween and you're getting ready for Christmas already! The Sun reports that the Catholic League sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein questioning why nativity scenes cannot be displayed in schools.

Rensselaer County Clerk Frank J. Merola is unhappy with Gov. Spitzer's plan to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. As an employee of the State, he has no legal discretion over whether he can ignore the plan once it's enacted, so he's filed a lawsuit to block the initiative in state Supreme Court in Albany. In a statement explaining his lawsuit. County Clerk Frank Merola alluded to a recent public opinion poll that showed widespread opposition to Spitzer's plan licensing plan.

“New York residents have stated loudly and clearly that we are not in favor of giving license to illegal aliens and all we get from the Governor are lectures on how we are wrong, and that if we were as smart as he was, we would understand and support this policy. Well, 72% of New York residents, including myself and a vast majority of County Clerks are not as smart as the Governor and I am filing suit to prevent this travesty of a policy from being implemented.”

Matthew Jones of Brooklyn pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct after he was arrested in Times Square last June for blocking a sidewalk in Times Square. Now he's appealing his case all the way to the state's highest court. Jones wasn't protesting anything or lying down on the sidewalk, he was simply standing on the corner of 42nd St. and 7th Ave. with a group of friends who were talking. Pedestrian traffic is pretty heavy in Times Square, even at 2 a.m., and a police officer asked him to move because he was impeding the flow of people. When Jones refused, the officer attempted to arrest him but he ran, earning him an additional charge of resisting arrest when he was caught.

In what can only be described as a shock, Joe Torre has decided not to return to the Bronx in 2008. Torre was offered a one-year deal at a base of $5-million with an additional $1-million guaranteed for each round of the playoffs that the Yankees reached. So, he could have made $8-million for getting to the World Series. The deal also included a team option for 2009 that would have vested at $8-million...

Former District Attorney Arthur Branch - a.k.a. former Senator Fred Thompson - came back to New York City to speak at a NY State Conservative Party event. He made clear he's really conservative, saying, "Some think the way to beat the Democrats next year is to be more like them. I could not disagree more. My friends, I suggest it's not time for psychological flexibilities in terms of our principles. That's the surefire way of making sure we don't win."

The Supreme Court essentially upheld an Appeals Court ruling that said New York City must pay the private education of disabled students. The twist is that the students and their parents don't even need to try to see if the public school programs are adequate for them.

The video of City Councilman James Oddo letting the f-bombs drop on a Norwegian TV comedian is getting mixed reactions - and a fair number of chuckles - from New Yorkers, but now it turns out that he wasn't meant to be a poor sap duped into answering stupid questions about whether Barack Obama is an American citizen and "Hillary Clinton's incident with a cigar."

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Waring Ave. and White Plains Rd. in the Bronx, a water rescue at the foot of East 79th St. in Manhattan, and a pedestrian fatally struck at Cropsy Ave. and the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. A Jewish family had to have their housekeeper call animal control to report a five-foot-long snake in their Brooklyn driveway. The definitions of midtown and the stress of establishing boundaries. New...