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De
Blasio had the support of 61 percent of likely voters in the
most recent Quinnipiac University poll in the race, released
last month, more than triple the 17 percent of respondents who
backed Malliotakis, of the city's Staten Island borough.
Last week's truck attack, in which an Uzbek man inspired by the
Islamic State killed eight people and injured 12 on a bike lane,
likely had little impact on voter preference in the heavily
Democratic city, said Douglas Muzzio, a political science
professor at Baruch College.
"He's going to win big," Muzzio said.
A progressive liberal, de Blasio in the past week campaigned
with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who
backed de Blasio's call for a state tax hike on people making
more than $500,000 a year, a measure with little chance of
passing the state legislature in Albany.
De Blasio's chances are helped by strong disapproval in New York
for U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican businessman and
real estate developer whose deals and personal life commanded
the front page of the city's tabloid newspapers long before he
garnered greater national fame for his starring role in the
reality television show "The Apprentice."
Some 78 percent of respondents to the Quinnipiac poll
disapproved of the way Trump is doing his job, with just 18
percent approving. De Blasio had a 58 percent favorability
rating in the poll of 731 likely voters performed Sept. 27-Oct.
4, which had a 4.7 percentage point margin of error.
De Blasio has taken heat for increasing service disruptions and
delays on the city's aging subway system, the largest in the
United States, though he has taken pains to emphasize that the
subway is run by a state-controlled authority, not the city.
Malliotakis in recent weeks has criticized de Blasio over
testimony from a former donor to the mayor in a federal
corruption trial involving a union boss. The donor, Jona
Rechnitz, told jurors he established a direct line to City Hall
after raising money for the mayor's campaign in 2013.
Federal prosecutors said in March they would not charge de
Blasio, a point he has repeated in trying to dismiss the
scandal.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Scott Malone and Marguerita
Choy)
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