A new poll, conducted before this week’s bombshell in the mayor’s race, shows the contest tightening as Eric Adams closes the gap with established frontrunner Andrew Yang.
Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, fell 6 points below Yang when respondents were asked to order their choices, which New Yorkers will be given the opportunity to do when ranked-choice voting debuts citywide for the June 22 primary.
In the simulation, Yang had 26 percent support to Adams’ 20 in the first round. City Comptroller Scott Stringer — whose candidacy was rocked by sexual assault allegations this week — received 12 percent. Well-known firm Benenson Strategy Group interviewed 1,558 likely Democratic voters on behalf of a pro-charter school group between April 16 and 21, one week before the accusations dating back to 2001 surfaced.
Maya Wiley, a former attorney to Mayor Bill de Blasio, ranked fourth at 10 percent, though aides to her campaign expect her to pick up support from people abandoning Stringer.
The other Democrats in the field — Ray McGuire, Shaun Donovan, Dianne Morales and Kathryn Garcia — all polled in the single digits, between 6 and 9 percent.
The poll found Yang maintaining his lead when voters selected their second- and third-place candidates.
When presented with the candidates without a ranked-choice option, Adams garnered 17 percent of respondents’ support, to Yang’s 22 points. Just 14 percent said they did not know who to select — a smaller portion of undecided voters than polls from other firms in recent weeks.
Yang, a former presidential candidate who is running his first New York City race, has the highest name recognition of anyone in the race with only 24 percent of those questioned reporting to be unfamiliar with him.
As such, he had both the highest positive and negative approval ratings — 53 percent and 23 percent, respectively.The poll was commissioned by StudentsFirstNY, an organization that supports an expansion of charter schools and has yet to get behind any candidate in the race. It found broad support for the nontraditional schools, which have been at odds with the United Federation of Teachers and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
When presented with a description of charter schools as “independently managed public schools that are open to all students, with no tuition or admissions tests” that “have flexibility to set their own curriculum and are supervised by city and state authorities to hold them accountable,” respondents overwhelmingly voiced support.
By a margin of 65 to 33 percent, those polled reported being favorable to charter schools.
Another eight in 10 said they believe the schools are “mostly good for their students,” compared to 16 percent who had a negative view.
And only 22 percent agreed that “no matter how good they are, charter schools are bad for the school system.” By comparison, 77 percent agreed they could be a positive asset “if we make sure they provide a high-quality education.”
Support for charters is higher among Black and Latino primary voters, according to the poll.
“A significant majority want to see mayoral candidates embrace charters in their education vision,” StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to a new era in partnership with a mayor who will put the students of New York first.”
Both Yang and Adams have spoken favorably about charter schools — a position that undoubtedly hurt their chances of scoring the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers. The union backed Stringer, and issued a statement Thursday indicating its continued support.
The poll also brought a bit of good news for de Blasio: More voters support his handling of public education than not, by a 52-44 margin. He also had a 48 percent job approval rating, after a rocky two terms in office.