A new Marist poll shows the gap between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and comptroller Bill Thompson is widening with Bloomberg holding steady with his support but Thompson losing ground.
More than half of likely voters support Bloomberg at 52 percent, compared to Thompson’s 36 percent. The mayor only led by 9 percentage points last month.
In a survey last month, Bloomberg led Thompson 52 percent to 43 percent, respectively. Thompsons seems to be slipping among undecided voters, the poll finds.
The survey indicates that nearly half of the Democratic voters are leaning towards Bloomberg, with 47 percent of voters backing him. Thompson is down 8 percentage points.
The support among Republicans remains the same with 82 percent supporting the mayor and 14 percent behind the comptroller.
But it isn’t all bad news for Thompson. This month, 48 percent of non-enrolled voters say they would rather see Thompson in office. Bloomberg only had 41 percent. Last month, 65 percent said they would prefer the billionaire compared to the comptroller’s 31 percent.
Those polled in the Marist study show that most don’t care about Bloomberg’s spending in his campaign. Only 20 percent say they are less likely to vote for him, while 72 percent say it doesn’t affect them at all. The rest say it make them more likely to vote for him.
The mayor’s decision to change term limits affected more votes as nearly half -- or 42 percent -- said they were less likely to vote for him due to the term limits.
