John Liu Says Public Polls Undercount His Support

Politicker had a pretty positive piece about John Liu yesterday.

The WSJ has one today.

As in the Politicker article, the Journal article focuses on Liu's long campaign days and work ethic but notes that despite these, Liu remains an underdog for mayor.

Still, the article says

Mr. Liu said the polls undercount his immigrant supporters. He points to his previous campaigns, for a Flushing City Council seat in 2001 and comptroller in 2009, in which he says pundits discounted his chances. Mr. Liu became the first Asian-American elected to both offices.

"Four years ago, the so-called experts said I didn't have any chance to win a citywide office," Mr. Liu told a crowd on Sunday, a well-worn stump speech. "Well in 2009 our community came out together, we came out in force, and we won that election in 2009. And this year is no different."

It's true that Liu outperformed in both those previous races, but it's hard to see how he outperforms in this one.

As the Journal article says:

Mr. Liu faces steep obstacles in his bid for City Hall. A fundraiser and a campaign aide were convicted of campaign-finance fraud, and the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office declined on Friday to say whether the probe was continuing. Mr. Liu hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. The fundraising charges could cause the city's Campaign Finance Board to deny him public matching funds.

A recent survey found that the percentage of Democrats who view him unfavorably is higher than that of all his rivals save former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned from Congress after sending lewd pictures to women on the Internet and lying about it.

A key part of Mr. Liu's biography—that as a child he worked in what he called a "sweatshop," an experience some immigrants identify with—has been challenged by the Daily News.

...


Mr. Liu is the most stridently anti-Mayor Michael Bloomberg candidate in the Democratic field. He wants to abolish the police practice of stop and frisk, not change it like his opponents. He wants to raise taxes on people making more than $500,000 a year and on commercial real estate to fund infrastructure and social programs.

They are positions that have caused many of the city's elite to dismiss him. While some real-estate and business executives have contributed to three of Mr. Liu's rivals, few have donated to his campaign. At the Inner Circle Show, an annual dinner featuring humorous song-and-dance routines by reporters and the mayor, the line "if John Liu wins, that would be pretty scary" in an otherwise optimistic song about New York's future drew laughs from a crowd heavy on business executives, lobbyists, politicians and journalists.

The elites hate him and wanted him destroyed.

They got their US attorney for hire to do just that.

The neo-liberals at the DN hate him and attack him on the sweat shop thing all the time.

The campaign finance fraud case and the tabloid attacks have driven up his negatives and hurt his fundraising.

I am glad to see a couple of articles that have some positives about him.

I really do like him.

I would love to endorse him and volunteer for his campaign.

Alas, given the negatives he has weighted around his neck, I don't think I can do either.

I just don't see a road to victory for him.

So I am deciding between de Blasio or (holding my nose) Thompson.

I want to wait one more polling cycle before I make a decision.

How about you out there?

Have you made up your mind already?

Or are you, too, waiting?