NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A new poll in the Democratic primary for mayor released Monday gave Eric Adams a seven-point lead over his rivals in the first round of ranked choice voting.
The poll from WNBC, Telemundo 47, Politico and Marist College runs the ranked choice voting tabulations all the way to round 12, where it predicts Adams would win over former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, 56 to 44.
Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang come in third and fourth, respectively.
Despite the poll, Adams on Monday insisted he was running his campaign as the underdog candidate.
“I'm always the underdog. I run like an underdog,” he said. “I could care less of what the polls say. I'm so focused and determined.”
Adams also took the opportunity to take a swipe at Garcia by appearing with city sanitation workers who have filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming unequal pay for women and minority workers.
“You had one agency to run correctly,” Adams said. “And you were not aware of the inequities. How are you going to be aware of the inequities in all of your agencies?”
Garcia, though, brushed off the attack, saying that this is the point in the race when things turn negative.
“The race is tightening up. It's between Eric and I, and this is when the mudslinging starts,” Garcia said. “I'm just not going to get into that field.”
She said she was proud of what she accomplished as commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation and vowed to do even more as mayor.
“I increased the leadership of people of color in sanitation by 50% and when I'm mayor, I will do more because I'll be able to do more,” Garcia said.
She called it a two-person race between herself and Adams.
But, Yang is not counting himself out of the race yet, and even won an endorsement from the union that represents NYPD captains. Adams, a former NYPD captain himself, said he never wanted the endorsement from them.
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