New York Times Confirms Bill Thompson is Gaining on Bloomberg

Mayor

The good news for the Democratic mayoral candidate, William C. Thompson Jr., is that he has edged a bit closer to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The bad news is that he still trails Mr. Bloomberg by double digits, according to a new poll released by Quinnipiac University on Monday morning, one day before New York voters choose the next mayor.

Mr. Bloomberg, who is seeking a third term, leads Mr. Thompson, the city comptroller, 50 percent to 38 percent among likely voters with 10 percent still undecided, the poll found. That is a smaller gap than was found in a Quinnipiac poll last week that showed the mayor with a lead of 18 percentage points.

Although Mr. Thompson has repeatedly criticized Mr. Bloomberg for upending the term limits law so he could run again and for the vast amount of money the mayor is spending on his campaign, Mr. Bloomberg still received a 63 percent favorable rating rating among likely voters.

And Mr. Thompson still remains unknown among a sizable portion of likely Democratic voters: 26 percent said they had not heard enough to form an opinion.

The poll of 1,360 likely voters has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Mr. Thompson’s campaign says its internal poll shows a much closer race, though the reliability of such polls is usually suspect. Both campaigns are crossing the city in an effort to persuade voters to go to the ballot in an election in which turnout is expected to be low.

Mr. Thompson needs to mobilize a huge turnout in Democratic precincts to have a chance of pulling off an upset. Mr. Bloomberg, meanwhile, is trying to ward off apathy among supporters who believe that their vote is not crucial because the mayor seems to have such a commanding lead.