Poll: Bloomberg would siphon votes from Giuliani, giving Clinton the win
By Helen Kennedy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — In a hypothetical, three-way, all-New Yorker 2008 election smackdown, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg would hurt Rudy Giuliani and throw the election to Sen. Hillary Clinton, according to a new CNN poll.
Bloomberg comes in a distant third as an independent in the presidential sweepstakes, according to CNN’s Opinion Dynamics poll.
The mayor fueled widespread speculation about his ambitions last week when he abandoned the GOP with no plausible reason other than to run for president — or make people think he is running. But his aides insist he’s no spoiler and won’t run unless he can actually win.
Overall, only 33 percent of registered voters said it was quite likely they would consider voting for an independent candidate. The rest didn’t think they’d consider it.
Without Bloomberg in the race, front-runners Clinton and Giuliani are neck and neck nationally at 49 percent to 48 percent.
But if Bloomberg took a self-funded plunge as an independent, he’d pick up 17 percent of the vote and Clinton would win, 41 percent to 38 percent.
A separate Siena College poll showed New York State voters want Clinton for president over Giuliani and would happily send Bloomberg to Albany instead of Washington.
Siena pitted Bloomberg against Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who would be up for reelection in 2010, and found the popular Spitzer’s lead was only 43 percent to 41 percent.
“There would be no Davids in that race. It would be Goliath versus Goliath,” said Siena Poll spokesman Steven Greenberg.
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