John Liu Faces Benign Neglect from New York Media
By wchung | 12 Jun, 2026

Frustration with New York City’s unaffordability and its aggressive police tactics is elevating Bill de Blasio, once dismissed as a left-leaning long shot, into the lead of the Democratic mayoral primary field, according to a poll by The New York Times and Siena College.

Christine C. Quinn, the longtime front-runner in the nomination contest, is now lagging far behind Mr. de Blasio and struggling to connect with members of her own party: forty-five percent of likely Democratic voters view her unfavorably.

With 11 days remaining until the primary, the new survey shows a drastically reshaped race as a broad cross-section of voters embraces Mr. de Blasio’s candidacy. It found that 32 percent of likely Democratic voters supported Mr. de Blasio, who is the city’s elected public advocate, compared with 18 percent for William C. Thompson Jr., the former comptroller, and 17 percent for Ms. Quinn, the speaker of the City Council.

Mr. de Blasio’s campaign, fueled by a relentless focus on economic disparity and a searing critique of the Bloomberg administration, has transcended the city’s traditional demographic divisions: he is drawing higher levels of support from men and women, older and younger, than any of his rivals. He has won the backing of those who think the city is headed in the right direction and those convinced it is on the wrong track.

With so little time left in the primary, Mr. de Blasio’s commanding lead will quite likely force his Democratic rivals to recalibrate their strategies, intensify their attacks and seek to land decisive blows against him during the final televised debate next week.

The citywide Times/Siena College poll was conducted on landlines and cellphones from Aug. 19 to 28 with 505 likely Democratic primary voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.

As voters prepare for a change in City Hall, the poll shows that Democrats remain deeply conflicted over the state of the city: they are evenly split over whether they approve or disapprove of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s job performance, and over whether the city is headed in the right or wrong direction.

Mr. de Blasio’s campaign has sought to capitalize on that unease, especially among the city’s liberal voters. But the survey suggests that his appeal has reached beyond the left-leaning constituencies he cultivated first as a councilman, then as public advocate.

Mr. Thompson and Ms. Quinn have attempted to portray themselves as somewhat moderate Democrats prepared to inherit a city government run over the past two decades by a Republican and then a Republican-turned-independent. But more Democrats say they think that Mr. de Blasio would do the best job of keeping the city safe and creating jobs.

However, it is his liberal views on the high cost of living in the city — captured by his slogan of “a tale of two cities” — that have resonated deeply: 29 percent say Mr. de Blasio would do the best job of making the city affordable, compared with 19 percent for Mr. Thompson and 15 percent for Ms. Quinn.

In a stinging development for Ms. Quinn, a former housing activist who has made the construction of low-income housing a cornerstone of her campaign, 30 percent of likely Democratic voters think Mr. de Blasio would do the best job of fixing the city’s housing needs. Eighteen percent said Mr. Thompson would, and 16 percent said Ms. Quinn would. Mr. de Blasio has a nine-point lead among women, a group Ms. Quinn expected to win.

Mr. de Blasio, who has brought his African-American wife to campaign stops and featured their biracial son in his television commercials, has managed to pull off an unusual feat: winning slightly more support from black voters than the sole black candidate in the race, Mr. Thompson, although the gap is within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

In a follow-up interview, Ronald Katz, a 54-year-old de Blasio supporter who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, said he was drawn to the candidate’s diverse family.

“That’s home for me, I have one as well,” he said. “I guess that my decision is less political than it is personal.”