The latest WNBC/Marist Poll says that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a 27 point lead over challenger Fernando Ferrer, which is 12 whopping points more than he had in a poll two weeks ago. Interesting points from the polls: Democrats preferred Bloomberg to Ferrer, 50% to 42%; over 80% think Bloomberg will win; 64% weren't bothered by the Mayor's decision not to debate at the Apollo; and 84% thought the Mayor was right to tell everyone about the subway security threat. Now, if you're wondering whether the revelation that the threat was actually a hoax (the latest reports says the informant was trying to get money from the government) and that the city may have jumped the gun, so to speak, would have affected those polled, the survey was conducted this past Sunday through yesterday, which means rumbling and suspicions would already be in the sample.
The groups, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement and National Latino Officers Association, (which support Ferrer) think that Blooomberg used the subway issue to dodge the debate, but the Mayor continued to say that at the time of investigations, the threat seemed credible. He further explained that an informant passed a lie detector test and screamed, "You're to late to stop us!" which freaked out officials. The NY Times has a longer article about the threat's "journey from Iraq to New York to Forget About It." That would actually be "to Fugheddaboutit."
And Democrats are saying the Mayor is hypocritical for criticizing Ferrer's acceptance of $36,000 in tobacco company contributions, since the Mayor accepted $461,000 from tobacco companies for the Republican National Convention last year. Now, not to say that the Mayor isn't hypocritical, but one would expect there to be tobacco companies contributing to the convention as they are practically the lifeblood of the Republican Party. The Observer has a story about the Mayor's campaign trying to make it all about his legacy - if there is one; we assume there's not much about Ferrer because the race, at this point, is Bloomberg's to lose.
