A new poll released over the weekend indicates that Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is ahead in the race with 50% of the vote. That would indicate that the Queens State Assemblyman would be the new mayor if the election were held today. The poll, however, was conducted by groups favorable to Mamdani, which raises concerns about its validity. Another poll released Friday indicates that Mamdani leads the other candidates among Jewish voters- despite the release of a separate, unrelated poll that says 58% of Jewish voters worry for their safety if Mamdani were to be elected mayor.
Political analyst and Mount Saint Vincent assistant professor JC Polanco recently interviewed Mamdani rival Andrew Cuomo for the first episode of his new podcast, called “Centered with JC Polanco.” Polanco appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to discuss how believable the polls are with Election Day exactly three months away.
“The veracity of the polls matter,” Polanco told host Larry Mendte. “The questions could be phrased in ways that not only manipulate the numbers, but this is where it gets interesting. In order for a poll to be valid, it must be scientific. It must be randomized, and what we see here is that it’s tailored, and when I read the introduction to the poll, the folks that put it together said that they went to demographics, they put it in different languages, et cetera. So I wondered how randomized is this poll [and] I believe… this is going to be an outlier poll.”
As for the Jewish vote, Polanco sees a trend based upon generational lines. “I think that the younger Jewish voters that don’t go to synagogue every week… will not be offended as much by not, for example, demonizing or never saying ‘globalize the intifada’… They may be less so inclined. They may be more in-line with their generation, less connected to Israel, and view what’s happening in Gaza as a major issue for them.”
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