Brooklyn voters not sure who they’ll pick but 49% say it won’t be Bill de Blasio
So much for the new, improved Bill de Blasio.
Disappointing fundraising numbers and a new poll show that even among progressive Democrats de Blasio remains unpopular.
Undecided voters in the newly created, left-leaning 10th congressional district — which includes his Park Slope home — may not know who they want to send to Washington, but nearly half know they definitely won’t cast a vote for the ex-mayor.
A new survey released Monday by the progressive Working Families Party asked 254 undecided, likely Democratic primary voters to select the names of all candidates from the crowded 10th CD field that they “definitely will not vote for.”
Of the 15 candidates in the race, 49% of respondents said they would not cast a ballot for de Blasio.
The next most unpopular candidates were tied at just 6% – former four-term congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and Maud Maron, an ex-Legal Aid lawyer and president of a school parent council. Forty-nine percent said they were “open to all candidates.”
The new district includes several neighborhoods, like Park Slope and portions of Borough Park, de Blasio represented in the City Council from 2002 to 2009.
Marist’s College head pollster Lee Miringoff told The Post the race is going to be a continued uphill battle for de Blasio, because it’s historically tough for NYC mayors to secure higher office – or political office in general – once they leave the role.
Former city mayors John Lindsay, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg and de Blasio — who failed to gain even 1% of the vote in 2020 — all launched failed presidential bids.
“There’s no success rate for it for those who try. There’s been people who ran for president – John Lindsay did, Giuliani did, Bloomberg did and their campaigns vanished,” said Miringoff.
De Blasio also flirted with the prospect of running to succeed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo after he resigned in disgrace last August under threat of impeachment, but ultimately did not enter the contest amid awful polling.
Miringoff said de Blasio “isn’t looking for a promotion, he’s looking for something to do.”
“Although he has run well in that area in the past, this is a different time and a different contest. He’s seeking the nomination and it’s a much more open proposition and much bigger challenge for himself. He didn’t exit the mayoralty as a popular mayor,” he added.
The 40-question survey conducted July 1 to 11 also asked a total of 636 likely Democratic primary voters if the NY-10 election were held today, who they would vote for.
The query yielded a tie between WFP-endorsed Assemblywoman Yuh Line Niou and City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, each netting 16% of support from respondents.
Daniel Goldman, a former US House impeachment lawyer received 10% and “carpetbagger” Rep. Mondaire Jones at 8%. Just 3% of respondents selected de Blasio as their preferred choice. 40% of respondents marked the “undecided” box.
And de Blasio, despite expectation that his name recognition and two terms as mayor would boost his campaign coffers raised just over $510,000 for the race, according to new campaign finance filings released on Friday.
It’s less than the haul posted by Jones – who currently reps a different district in Westchester – and raised $3 million posted, as well as the $1.2 million raised by Goldman, a relative unknown who started running ads after the fundraising period.
But State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs defended de Blasio, arguing the fact that half of Democratic voters say they won’t vote for de Blasio doesn’t mean he’s not a serious contender.
“It’s not the best indicator. But he’s the one with the most name recognition. It also means that half the voters are open to voting for de Blasio,” Jacobs told The Post in a phone interview.
“If there are other candidates who were as well known and their positions were known, they would have higher negatives. “In a race with this many candidates, someone can win with 20 percent of the vote.”
A rep for de Blasio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
