New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's job approval rating is slipping, although a racial divide on the mayor's performance is growing, a new poll shows.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, voters give the mayor an overall 49 percent approval rating, with 36 percent disapproving.
Those scores compare to a 50 percent to 32 percent job approval in an Aug. 26 poll, a 57-30 percent approval rating in a June 11 survey and a 58-23 percent rating on March 18, the pollster notes.
In the latest survey, voters are overwhelmingly supportive of
de Blasio's decision to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, with 71 percent approving and 26 percent disapproving.
The racial divide is stark, the poll finds de Blasio has a 71 percent to 14 percent approval rating of the mayor among black voters and a 56 percent to 27 percent rating among Hispanic voters. De Blasio garners just 34 percent approval from white voters, and a 50 percent disapproval rating, the poll finds.
"It’s a tale of two cities under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio," Quinnipiac poll's assistant director, Maurice Carroll, said in a
news release.
"Black voters think the mayor is terrific. White voters don’t approve. And the racial gap gets wider every time we ask."
Carroll noted, however, the mayor gets "positive ratings" on personal characteristics, including leadership, honesty, and empathy.
"Voters overwhelmingly approve Mayor de Blasio’s order to stop making arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and they doubt that the decision will cause a rise in crime," Carroll said.
The survey also found 17 percent of city voters think the Rev. Al Sharpton is the most important black leader in the city, while 9 percent said that of President Barack Obama and 4 percent for New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.
No other official gets more than 2 percent and 56 percent are undecided, the poll noted.
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And though voters gave Sharpton a negative 40-45 favorability rating, the poll found 47 percent to 43 percent say he's a positive force in New York City.
Thirty-two percent of the voters say Sharpton has too much influence with de Blasio, while 9 percent say he has too little and 39 percent say Sharpton has the right amount of influence, the poll finds
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
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