While two Latinos are in the running for the New York City mayor’s seat in the upcoming election, the role the Latino vote will play in the race remains unclear. It is the race for Comptroller that has unexpectedly shown how critical Latino voters will be, according to the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) Network on Latino Issues.
Democrat Eliot Spitzer’s candidacy for Comptroller has put a spotlight on the importance of the Latino vote. According to the NiLP, two-thirds of the Democratic Party is made up of voters of color. However, local political polling has been widely viewed as unreliable, they reported.
The mayoral candidates, both Puerto Ricans, are Erick Salgado, who is running in the Democratic Primary, and Adolfo Carrion, an independent candidate. Endorsements from the city’s Latino leaders have been inconsistent, according to the report.
“These polls consistently do a poor job of measuring the opinions of the majority of the city’s population,” the report said. ” . . . Although the Black and Latino numbers presented below may not be as accurate as they should be, they do point to broad patterns that raise important questions about the nature of the city’s electorate and the accuracy of local polling.”
According to data from Democratic voters, 46 of whites said they would suppport Scott Stringer for Comptroller, while 46 percent of Latinos and 50 percent of blacks said they supported Spitzer.
Throughout the poll questions, Spitzer emerged as “the most clearcut candidate of the city’s new majority of Black and Latino votes.”
(Photo by Center for American Progress via Flickr)