6 Percent of Likely New York Democratic Voters Think Anthony Weiner Has Really Strong Moral Character
Anthony Weiner's campaign for mayor of New York City has collapsed, a new Quinnipiac poll out on Monday shows. Weiner is now behind City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (27 percent), Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (21 percent), and former Comptroller William Thompson (20 percent). With 16 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters, Weiner is really only the envy of the current New York City comptroller, John Liue (6 percent), and Sal Albanese (2 percent).
And 53 percent of likely Democratic voters think Weiner should drop out of the race altogether. That's a lot of bad news. At the same time, the bad news isn't that different from what Weiner saw last week in the Wall Street Journal/NBC 4/Marist poll, which also had Weiner at 16 percent support.
But on the upside? Despite all the pictures, the messages, The Dirty, there are still people out there who believe in the soul of Anthony Weiner. In response to the question of whether the statement "has a strong personal moral character" applies to Weiner, 6 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said it describes him "a great deal." Eight percent believe it applied to him "a good amount." More women (6 percent) than men (4 percent) believe "a great deal."
Which of course begs the question: Who are the 6 percent?
They represent a bewildering group in modern U.S. politics. Like the 12 percent of Americans who feel that Congress is doing a good job in a recent NBC poll. Or the 1 percent of Republicans in a recent Quinnipiac poll who said they were "very satisfied" with the way things are going in the country. For every bottoming out of approval, there is always a small fringe on the flip side.
The spot of possible bad news here for Weiner? It could just largely be polling error. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.6 percentage points. So he could really be significantly lower on the character front. Or, you know, just over 10 percent.
For more on the poll and what it means going forward, check out Hotline's Steven Shepard's full breakdown.
