Latinos Feel De Blasio Does Not

Deserve Reelection as Mayor

Findings from the July 21-28, 2016 Quinnipiac Poll

By Angelo Falcón

The NiLP Report (August 3, 2016)

 

The latest Quinnipiac Poll has found that Latino support for NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is at an all-time low, just as he begins his reelection campaign for a second term.

 

Deserves Reelection? A plurality of Latinos (48 percent) do not believe that Mayor de Blasio deserves reelection. This is in comparison to 70 percent of Whites who agree, and 72 percent of Blacks who believe he deserves reelection. Overall, half of New Yorkers (50 percent) believe he does not deserve reelection.

 

2017 Mayor Vote? However, it appears that while a majority of Whites (58 percent) would support opponents of the Mayor for the post, Latinos do not seem to like the alternatives to the current Mayor, with 56 percent supporting de Blasio. De Blasio would receive his greatest support from Blacks (65 percent).,

Level of Satisfaction? Latinos are the most unsatisfied (57 percent) with the way things are going in New York City, compared to 56 percent of Whites and 44 percent of Blacks.

Job Ratings? Only half (50 percent) of Latinos approve of the job de Blasio is doing as Mayor. This is in comparison to only 25 percent of Whites and 63 percent of Blacks,

Regarding his handling of the city budget, a plurality of Latinos (46 percent) and a majority of Whites (52 percent) disapprove, in contrast to 53 percent of Blacks who approve.

In terms of de Blasio's handling of police-community relations, a majority of Latinos (53 percent) and Whites (68 percent) disapprove.

The one Latino elected officials included in the poll, Council Speakers Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents East Harlem and part of the Bronx, received poor job approval ratings from all three major racial-ethnic groups. As expected, she received the highest approval rating from Latinos (only 38 percent), and the worse from Whites (23 percent). Large percentages of the three groups indicated that they didn't know enough about her to provide a rating: 55 percent of Blacks, 48 percent of Whites and 38 percent of Latinos.

Conclusion. With his decline in popularity among Latinos, the Black-Latino electoral coalition that elected him in 2013 seems to be breaking down. Although he maintains strong support among Blacks, his numbers among Latinos are softening on some issues. The most striking number is the ther majority of Latinos dissatisfied with the way things are going in the city.

This poll was taken on July 21 - 28, when Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,310 New York City voters, with a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points. The survey includes 845 Democrats, with a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. For further information on the poll, click here.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy, for which he edits the online information service, The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics. He can be reached at [email protected].