Rudy's numbers soar in Daily News Poll

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sun Oct 3 22:31:44 PDT 1999


[Interesting. The same people that disapprove of his most recent flap over the Broklyn Museum by 2 to 1 give him higher approval numbers everywhere else. And its seems to have improved his numbers statewide as well. How can such high disapproval translate into increased support?

I was also kind of floored by how big Hillary's lead is over Rudy. Even cut down, it's still 51% to 31%. Statewide?? I thought upstate Republicans would hate her.]

Rudy Gains Ground

Job approval rating soars in latest poll

By DAVE SALTONSTALL

Daily News Staff Writer

[D_dc.gif] espite the furor over the Brooklyn Museum, Mayor Giuliani's

job approval rating among New Yorkers is higher now than at any time

this year, a new Sunday News poll shows.

The mayor's rating, which plummeted as low as 40% in March following

the Amadou Diallo shooting, now tops out at 54% -- a level he has not

reached since November 1998.

The turnaround also is paying dividends in his expected U.S. Senate

race against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The poll found that while Giuliani trailed the First Lady in the city

by as much as 37 points in June, he has cut that lead to just 20

points, with Clinton garnering 51% of the vote to Giuliani's 31%.

Fifteen percent remain undecided.

Part of that tightening can be credited to the natural erosion of the

First Lady's numbers following the early hype surrounding her expected

race. But the mayor also appears to be winning people back.

"It is not just that she has fallen," said pollster Mickey Blum of

Blum & Weprin Associates, the firm that conducted the poll. "He really

has made some kind of a comeback."

The city's crime rate, as well as the mayor's policies to combat

crime, appear to be important factors.

In March, for instance -- as daily protests continued over the

February police shooting of West African immigrant Diallo -- 34% of

New Yorkers said they thought the mayor's crime policies made the city

safer. A much larger 57% thought those policies interfered with the

rights of innocent people.

Now, with some indexes showing crime creeping back up in recent

months, those numbers have flipped, with 54% approving of the mayor's

crime policies and 37% expressing concern about individual rights.

The random survey of 508 New York City residents was taken Wednesday

and Thursday; it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage

points.

"I think a lot of the police criticism came and went," said Republican

political consultant Kieran Mahoney. "The reality is that for millions

of people who walk down city streets at night, it is safe. And the

mayor gets a lot of credit for that."

Not that New Yorkers agree with Giuliani on everything.

Indeed, the same respondents who gave the mayor a 54% job approval

rating also objected to his stance against the Brooklyn Museum by a

2-to-1 ratio. But voters apparently have come to expect such responses

from Giuliani, especially on hot-button cultural issues like the

museum, while still supporting his broader policies.

"An issue like this does not surprise too many people," Blum said of

the museum flap. "It also may not be the issue that decides whether or

not they support him."

It hasn't hurt, of course, that since July the city has been hit with

a massive Con Edison blackout, Tropical Storm Floyd and West Nile

fever -- all crises that have allowed Giuliani to highlight his

commander-in-chief persona.

Whether by design or happenstance, getting back to governing the city

seems to have paid off for Giuliani.

"The mayor has soundly pursued a strategy of being as active a mayor

as he can be," said Democratic consultant Jeff Plaut. "And when he

does that, it helps."

Original Publication Date: 10/03/1999



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