Donald Trump may be the only lifelong New Yorker in the presidential race, but that doesn’t seem to win him any points here in his hometown, according to results of our exclusive NY1/Baruch College City Poll, which also found surprisingly little enthusiasm for a third-party run by a certain former mayor. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.
New Yorkers may have liked Mike Bloomberg enough to elect him to three terms as mayor, but their support apparently stops somewhere short of the White House.
The latest NY1/Baruch College City Poll found 58 percent of city residents said "No" when asked if they'd like to see Bloomberg make a third-party run for president. Only about a third said yes. Eight percent were unsure.
"I don't know how much of it is a rejection of Bloomberg, as it is a sign of support for a Democratic candidate," said Mickey Blum, a pollster with Baruch College.
Indeed, another New Yorker, Republican front-runner Donald Trump, boasted on Sunday of his electability coming off a big primary win in South Carolina.
"I will have a chance of winning New York. If I win New York, the election’s over," Trump said.
But our poll encountered a different reality.
"New York City voters reject him resoundingly," Blum said.
In a theoretical general-election matchup against Hillary Clinton, Trump gets walloped 72 percent to 14 percent, a staggering 58-point margin.
He doesn’t fare much better against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, losing to him by 51 points.
"Donald Trump may talk about New York values, but clearly he does not share the same values as New Yorkers, or at least, New York City voters don't see it that way," Blum said.
Clinton and Sanders are, of course, locked in a closer-than-expected battle for the Democratic nomination. It’s unclear if a winner will emerge before New York holds its presidential primary April 19, but at least among voters here in the five boroughs, Clinton has the edge.
Among registered Democrats, 48 percent said they’d support her in the primary, versus 38 percent for Sanders, with 12 percent unsure, though as has been the case elsewhere, Sanders beats her convincingly among voters under 30.
As for Bloomberg, who’s acknowledged he’s considering a run, he declined through a spokesman to comment on our poll results. It appears he’ll let his decision, expected by early March, speak for itself.