Weiner Among Minority of Voters Who Think He Should Stay In the Race
Weiner has dropped to fourth in the latest poll, with a majority voters of New York voters suggesting he should drop out of the race. Not going to happen.
.It's almost impossible to talk about Anthony Weiner's current political prospects without sounding as though you're making some lewd pun. Begging forgiveness in advance: Weiner has dropped to fourth in the latest poll, with a majority voters of New York voters suggesting he should drop out of the race. Not that he will.
Last week, we graphed the four polls in the Mayor's race to that point. Below, we've updated it. As you can see, Weiner (the red line) has stayed consistent since last Thursday. But two of his challengers have overtaken him.
(How much of Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio's rise in the polls is due to his hipster outreach isn't known.)
More interesting is that three of the five polls come from the same pollster, Quinnipiac University. (Here's today's.) This allows us to compare those results directly. It's no wonder, based on the change in Quinnipiac's poll alone, that the firm's press release begins "Weiner Should Drop Out."
That suggestion, however, comes from the voters, not from the pollster. Providing a quick overview of the new scandals enveloping the candidate, Quinnipiac asked two questions. First: "Is or is not a legitimate issue in the mayoral election?" Second: "Do you think Anthony Weiner should remain in the race for Mayor or drop out of the race for Mayor?" In each response, the majority ruled against Weiner: it's a real issue, and he should drop out.
Should Weiner drop out?
Is it a legitimate issue?
There's one more reason that Weiner might reconsider spending his time and money running for office. In every possible head-to-head match-up (assuming no candidate gets at least 40 percent in the primary), Weiner comes in second. Of course, he did even before the new revelations were revealed, so it's safe to assume he'll never pull out.
Damn it. Almost made it the entire article.
Update 5:56 p.m.: Turns out the even Eliot Spitzer isn't interested in seeing Weiner become mayor. The city comptroller candidate and fellow scandal veteran told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that he wasn't planning on voting for Weiner. Here's Politico:
Asked by host Chris Matthews Monday on MSNBC’s “Hardball” who he would vote for in the mayoral election, Spitzer was hesitant to answer. Matthews pressed Spitzer, saying “You’re not going to vote for Anthony Weiner, can you just say that now? You don’t think he should be mayor of New York.”
“Fair point, that is correct,” Spitzer responded.