Bloomberg looks set for another term as NY Mayor

NEW YORK – New York Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg is so far ahead of his Democratic challengers that he could be re-elected even if his own party members stayed home on Election Day.

The first-term mayor leads each of the four Democrats in the race for City Hall by as much as 15 points, and his approval rating is as high as when he first took office, said the survey by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Two-thirds of voters say they are satisfied with Bloomberg’s administration, the poll showed. And in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one, Democrats give him a 58-percent approval rating and Republicans approve of him by 72 percent, it said.

“With the mayor’s approval and the satisfaction rating this high, any challenger would be hard-pressed to convince voters it’s time for a change,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Polling Institute. “At this rate, New York City Republicans could stay home on Election Day. The mayor could win this one with Democrats and independent voters.”

Although Bloomberg sowed discontent raising property taxes early in his term, failed in a controversial bid to build a professional football stadium in Manhattan and lost the race to host the 2012 Olympics, he has done little to spur voters to look elsewhere, experts say.

“He is perceived by New Yorkers as someone who has been steady at the helm in times of global uncertainty and has been fiscally prudent at a time when people are waiting perhaps for the other shoe to drop in terms of the economy. It hasn’t,” said Lisa Linden, a public relations executive who formerly handled political campaigns.

If Bloomberg wins a second four-year term on Nov. 8, the city would have Republicans in the top job at City Hall for an unprecedented 16 years. His predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, served from 1994 through 2001. The Democrats — former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (news, bio, voting record) — aren’t doing much to help themselves, said Lee Miringoff of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.