If Hillary Clinton decided to take on Mayor Bill de Blasio this year, she’d beat him by 20 points, a poll released Wednesday found.
Quinnipiac University’s survey asked city voters to weigh in on possible scenarios for this year’s mayoral election and the former presidential candidate was the only one who beat de Blasio.
About 49% of voters said they’d choose her if she ran as an independent candidate while 29% said they would vote for de Blasio.
Rumors have been circulating that Clinton might throw her hat into the race, but she hasn’t publicly commented on those reports. De Blasio told reporters he didn’t think she would be running for office anytime soon.
The poll also indicated that de Blasio’s approval rating is 45% while his disapproval rating is 46%. A poll released just after the presidential election found that his ratings were 47-47.
Those declining approval numbers, however didn’t seem to impact his chances on some of his other potential rivals, according to the poll. About 34% of voters chose him in a hypothetical Democratic primary against Christine Quinn, 12%, Scott Stringer, 10%, Hakeem Jeffries, 7%, Ruben Diaz Jr., 5% and Tony Avella, 1%.
The mayor would still have an edge over Quinn and Stringer if he faced off with them as independent challengers, with a 10% and 14% lead, respectively, according to the poll.
“We believe a Democrat running on a third-party or independent line is a possibility which must be measured in 2017,” Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,138 New York City voters by phone between Jan. 11 and 17.
The survey included 738 Democratic voters.
The poll’s margin of error is +/- 2.9%.
