Poll: Voters Not Thrilled With de Blasio’s Start

NEW YORK (AP) —

Only 39 percent of city voters believe Mayor Bill de Blasio’s has done a “good” or “excellent” job during his first two months in City Hall, according to a poll released Thursday.

More than half of the voters polled rated his performance “fair” or “poor,” according to the NBC/WSJ/Marist College poll. Just 10 percent gave de Blasio the highest “excellent” mark while 29 percent categorized his performance as good.

De Blasio, the city’s first Democratic mayor in 20 years, took office Jan. 1 after capturing 73 percent of the vote in a landslide victory. The poll, the first of his mayoralty, comes in the wake of a series of missteps.

He drew criticism for calling the NYPD after the arrest of a political ally; a video showed his SUV caravan breaking several traffic laws just two days after he unveiled his traffic safety plan; and his signature proposal, a tax hike on the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten, appears stalled in Albany.

Voters also gave him a middling grade on his handling of the harsh winter weather: 56 percent believe he has successfully handled the series of snowstorms that have blanketed the region.

Thirty-seven percent of voters rated his overall job performance as fair while an additional 20 percent say he is doing poorly, according to the poll.

De Blasio himself received far higher marks than his performance. Fifty-nine percent have a  favorable view of him while 33 percent have an unfavorable view. Moreover, 65 percent of voters believe de Blasio cares about people like them, 63 percent say he is fulfilling his campaign promises and 58 percent believe he is a good leader.

De Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, scored higher marks in the first Marist poll taken after he assumed office in January 2002. Fifty percent of voters rated his performance as “excellent” or “good” while 29 percent said it was “fair” and six percent said it was “poor.”

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