Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.com
I've been looking through exit poll data in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City. A couple of questions struck me in the Big Apple.
First, understandably, no one knows how to describe Mayor Michael Bloomberg's party affiliation. Thirty-four percent said independent, 31% said Republican, 12% said Democrat and 19% said other. I'd like to think that 19% has joined me in describing Bloomberg, who ran on the Republican and Independence Party lines, as a Indepublican (I've decided that has a better ring than "Rependent").
Secondly, it's rare that you can say that voters answered an exit poll question incorrectly. However, 45% of voters said Bloomberg's decision to change mayoral term limits made them less likely to vote for him. Forty percent, including many Bloomberg supporters, said the decision had no effect on their votes.
That's simply wrong. If Bloomberg hadn't changed the term limits law, he wouldn't have been on the ballot, so they definitely wouldn't have voted for him.
On a more serious note, Bloomberg did have a 70% approval rating in the exit poll. So, his weak showing shouldn't be read as to strong of a renunciation of the mayor.
GOVERNING Politics is the place for news and analysis on campaigns and elections. If there's a ballot measure in California, a legislative election in Alabama, a mayoral election in Anchorage or a governor's race in Rhode Island, GOVERNING Politics probably is writing about it. We love everything about state and local politics, from polls and campaign ads to policy debates and demographic trends.
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