Maurice Carroll

Here’s Quinnipiac pollster Mickey Carroll in City Hall this morning, explaining the qualitative difference in the opposition to Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan and the opposition to Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give driver’s licenses to undocumented residents.

Today's Q poll offers a pithy write-off of Mike Bloomberg's theoretical presidential candidacy.

"Bloomberg doesn't even get a majority of Republicans. And Democrats? Fuhgeddaboutit," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

But, as Carroll noted in an earlier Q poll about Bloomberg's chances in another race:

"If Bloomberg does enter the race and starts spending big bucks, we can expect things to get interesting."

-- Azi Paybarah

Maurice Carroll, the Quinnipiac pollster, says the nearly 20-point spread separating Andrew Cuomo from Mark Green in the attorney general's race is "the only race even close to close in tomorrow's Democratic primary."

This collective yawn has been a source of some modest frustration with those of us looking for dramatic political narratives this week. But it must have been particularly galling to the few local candidates who, unnoticed by most of the news-reading public, have found themselves locked in tight races for their political lives.

A quick count shows there are at least four contests whose outcomes are too close to call -- which is my way of asking you to make the call in the comment section.

25th Senate District Martin Connor v. Ken Diamondstone Connor was ousted as the senate minority leader, has a quirky campaign finance issue that shows him in the red, and is facing a provocative and reasonably well-funded challenge from Diamondstone.

74th Assembly District Sylvia Friedman v. Brian Kavanagh Friedman won the seat as an insurgent in February, but lost the endorsement of the New York Times because she has worked too closely with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and because Kavanagh has carried the reform message more persuasively.

13th Senate District John Sabini v. Hiram Monserrate Sabini fended off a Monserrate-backed challenger two years ago, who showed surprising strength among the district's African-American and increasingly powerful Hispanic constituency. Now, Monserrate himself is the candidate, and Sabini is counting on support from the Democratic establishment (see above) to help him hold on.

22nd Assembly District Ellen Young v. Julia Harrison v. Terence Park Incumbent Jimmy Meng retired after one term and his daughter was kicked off the ballot, making Ellen Young, a staffer for Councilman John Liu, the front-runner. But Harrison, a former councilwoman there, is formidable, and Park's persistent campaign could be seen as a vote-drainer for Young.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

The late humorist Fred Allen wasn’t thinking of Albany when he entitled his memoirs Treadmill to O  read more »

A new Quinnipiac poll bolsters Bloomberg's big lead, with Mike ahead of Freddy by 28 points. The poll's margin of error was plus/minus 2.6 points, and pollsters noted a big spike for Mike after the subway terrorism alert. During the first three days of the survey, Mike held a 19-point lead; after he announced the terror threat, the lead soared to 34 points.

"Now that the threat has been lifted, we'll see if the Mayor's numbers come back down to earth," wrote Maurice Carroll, director of the Q-Poll.  read more »

Meanwhile, back on earth -- and at least for now -- it is raining on Fernando Ferrer.

The late humorist Fred Allen wasn't thinking of Albany when he entitled his memoirs Treadmill to Obl  read more »

Forty-nine-year-old writer Fran Lebowitz was perturbed about Hillary Clinton's all-but-certain Senat  read more »