Public advocate Bill de Blasio leads the Democratic race for New York City mayor with support from 30 percent of potential voters, according to a new poll released yesterday by Quinnipiac University.
The poll suggests de Blasio’s stance on the controversial stop-and-frisk policy is helping him gain support from potential Democratic voters.
De Blasio’s has been consistently opposed to stop-and-frisk and he has pledged to end the policy practiced by the NYPD.
He has also garnered the support from left-wing civil rights activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte.
“Two related issues which seem to resonate with Democratic voters are stop-and-frisk and the creation of an inspector general for the New York Police Department,” Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said.
“U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin did her part for the voters by appointing a federal monitor for the NYPD. If politicians follow the poll results too, the NYPD is going to get still another outside monitor,” Carroll added.
City Council speaker Christine Quinn, who has been leading in most polls for the past couple of months, is trailing de Blasio by six percentage points. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson is currently ranked third with the support of 22 percent of likely Democratic voters.
Thompson, the only African-American candidate, has 39 percent of the black vote and de Blasio follows with 22 percent. But de Blasio has 39 percent of the white vote, while Thompson has 12 percent of white voter support.
De Blasio has put his multiracial family in public view throughout the race. His wife, Chirlane McCray, who is African-American, and their biracial children have made multiple public appearances and appeared in televised ads in support of de Blasio.
The first major New York mayoral debate was held last night, and several reports this morning are saying de Blasio out-performed the other candidates.
The Democratic primary is set for Sept. 10.
Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.