This Poll Must Be Cited As: Newsday/News12/Siena College Poll
Mangano Leads Suozzi 52-41% Heading into Election Day
Majority of Likely Voters View Mangano Favorably & Suozzi Unfavorably
Rice Cruising to Re-election as D.A.; Maragos, Weitzman Too Close to Call
Loudonville, NY. With just days until Election Day, Republican Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano leads Democratic former County Executive Tom Suozzi 52-41 percent, according to the Newsday/News 12/Siena College Poll of likely Nassau County voters released today, down from 52-35 percent in the October 13 Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll. Mangano is viewed favorably by 56 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 39 percent (down from 58-34 percent on October 13). Suozzi has a negative 43-52 percent favorability rating (down from 45-46 percent on October 13).
Democratic District Attorney Kathleen Rice has a commanding lead over her little known Republican opponent, Howard Sturim, 71-22 percent (up from 63-26 percent on October 13). In the battle for county comptroller between incumbent Republican George Maragos and the former incumbent, Democrat Howard Weitzman, voters are closely divided with 46 percent supporting Weitzman and 43 percent for Maragos.
“Heading into the closing days of the campaign, Mangano maintains a double digit lead over Suozzi, although the race has tightened a little over the last three weeks,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “Is there enough time, or does the Suozzi campaign have a strong enough ‘get out the vote’ operation to overcome the rest of the deficit? In a low turnout election – as it was four years ago and is expected this year – anything is possible.
“However, even though more voters think Nassau is headed in the wrong direction than on the right track, voters like Mangano more than they like Suozzi and closing the gap could prove very difficult. Particularly since Mangano is doing a slightly little better job holding Republicans than Suozzi is with Democrats and independent voters favor Mangano two-to-one,” Greenberg said.
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This Newsday/News 12/Siena College Poll was conducted October 27 – 31, 2013 by telephone calls to 999 Nassau County likely voters via both land lines and cell phones and has a margin of error of + 3.1 percentage points. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party, race/ethnicity and gender to ensure representativeness. Likely voters were determined based upon their previous voting behavior, attention to this election and stated intent to vote. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in New York State. SRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Steve Greenberg at 518-469-9858. For survey cross-tabs and frequencies: www.Siena.edu/SRI/SNY.
