Poll: New York City council speaker could become city’s first openly gay and first female mayor
A new poll has been released which suggests that New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, could be in with a chance of becoming the first openly gay, and first female mayor of the city.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed that 37% of Democratic voters favoured Quinn, which, if she continues to close in, could mean she could reach 40%, and avoid a run-off primary.
Quinn married her long time partner Kim Catullo, in New York City last May, reports the Huffington Post.
As well as Quinn dominating the Democratic polls, the numbers also showed that 78% of New York City voters were either “comfortable” or “enthusiastic” about the possibility of having an openly gay New York City mayor.
That 78% was also a higher percentage than New Yorkers who said they would like another figure similar to the current mayor, businessman Michael Bloomberg. 58% said they were “comfortable” or “enthusiastic” about having a similar candidate to Bloomberg running the city.
“When asked for a self-assessment, New Yorkers say they are remarkably unbiased,” explained Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “But they’re true to one stereotype about a super-liberal city – only being a business executive draws significant negative votes in a mayoral candidate.”
Forbes recently named Bloomberg as the 13th richest person in the world.
An advocate of equal marriage, and supporter of equal marriage campaigns in four US states, Mayor Bloomberg personally pledged $500,000 (£312,000) towards equal marriage efforts in Washingon, Maine and Minnesota. He had previously pledged $250,000 (£155,000) to help towards making equal marriage legal in the state of Maryland.
