Christine Quinn, City Council Speaker and FOB [Friend of Bloomberg], remains way ahead of her peers in the latest 2013 Mayoral election poll. Way ahead. But Quinn shouldn't necessarily start organizing U-Haul trips to Gracie Mansion just yet. Remember when Anthony Weiner was the clear front runner?
According to the latest Quinnipiac poll Quinn is the choice of 29 percent of Democrats (the primary for whom is arguably the most important part of the election story at the moment). That is down just three points from April's polling data. In Quinn's wake is a tight race for second place between former City Comptroller Bill Thompson, with ten percent; City Comptroller John Liu, nine percent; and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, nine percent. Finally, taking up the rear are Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, four percent, and media mogul Tom Allon, one percent. Still! With 34 percent still undecided, there is lots of wiggle room before New Yorkers start marching to the polls.
And there are lots of things that could cause Quinn problems in the next year. While her openly being gay (and married!) will likely not be a serious issue—according to the same Quinnipiac poll only ten percent of voters say they are less likely to vote for a gay or lesbian—her close ties to current Mayor Bloomberg and many of his policies may cause her headaches (hence some distancing of late). For instance, while many of the other mayoral hopefuls are willing to publicly entertain the idea of a new police commissioner, Quinn has been vocal about wanting Bloomberg's man Ray Kelly to stay as long as he'd like.
