NYC Wants Bloomberg Gone But Doesn't Know His Opponent

The bad news for Democrats in the latest NY1 poll is that the mayor still enjoys a 60% approval rating from New Yorkers. The good news though is that 55% of the same group of respondents want to see him gone. NY1 asked plenty of questions, and it leads to some important answers. If Bill Thompson (or any other candidate) wants to take advantage of the political landscape, he'd better take notice.

From NY1:

The poll shows that while 60 percent of New Yorkers approve of Bloomberg's job performance, 55 percent say the want "someone else" in City Hall next year.

The poll also shows that an overwhelming number of New Yorkers are unfamiliar with Bloomberg's top rival, Democrat Bill Thompson.

The poll surveyed 683 adults throughout New York City with a margin of sampling error of +/-4 percentage points.

The poll is much more detailed inside, showing that Bloomberg's highest negatives come in the area of taxes (remember this?), education and especially the term limit extension fiasco. Seven in ten New Yorkers still want term limits and six in ten disapproved of the mayor and council's egregious action that extended the limit to three terms.

While some people know of Bloomberg's downsides, there are areas that the people are lacking in information. For instance, the poll doesn't even register a blip of outrage over the fact that Bloomberg helped the Yankees receive more than $1.3 billion in taxpayer assistance to build their new stadium and a few hundred million that went to the construction of Citi Field.

Then there's the fact that hardly anybody knows that Thompson is actually running for mayor. With less than five months before the election, 86% of surveyed New Yorkers have no opinion of Bill Thompson. That means the front runner has some serious work to do so that the overwhelmingly Democratic town understands that there is a Democrat in the race that is opposing an plutocratic "independent" Bloomberg.

Part of the problem is a broken down and bent out of shape party structure that can't seem to get fully behind a Democratic candidate. Even the current Democratic Council Speaker can't bring herself to support the eventual nominee of the her party. What it all boils down to is that Thompson and whatever percentage of party leaders and activists must work tirelessly to combat Bloomberg's onslaught of deceptive campaign material and other dubious activities so that New Yorkers clearly know what choices they have when election day comes upon us.