De Blasio Not Concerned About Poor Poll Numbers Amid Corruption Probes
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio was playing defense Thursday as he held his first news conference in eight days.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, new polls show a majority of voters think the scandal surrounding de Blasio is serious and could affect his political future.
De Blasio walked into the news conference in Washington Heights Thursday, embracing several city councilmen as some New Yorkers are having trouble embracing him. The poor polling numbers come in the wake of several corruption investigations.
"I've learned that polls go up and down, and my job is to just keep doing the work," de Blasio said.
For de Blasio, who in running for office vowed a new era of transparency, it was his first news conference since a new Quinnipiac poll showed 53 percent of New Yorkers disapprove the way de Blasio is handling political corruption.
A total of 55 percent of poll respondents think de Blasio does favors for developers who make contributions to campaigns he is involved in.
Kramer: "So how do you change people's view of you that they think you do favors for people who contribute large amounts to your campaign?"
De Blasio: "We talked about polls before. I don't believe they provide a complete picture of what people are thinking. I think people judge you by the results."
The mayor was also vague about a vow he made at his last news conference eight days ago to make public what he called a "stunning" list of donors who asked for things, but got turned down.
"As I said, there's going to be information we'll be putting forward in waves over the coming weeks, but only when we feel it's ready," de Blasio said.
New Yorkers have a variety of views about their mayor.
"I supported de Blasio. I don't support him anymore," said Bob Page of Murray Hill. "I think the quality of life would be much, much better if Mayor de Blasio were not elected again."
"I think de Blasio's tried hard and is doing a lot of great things," said Dan Beaudoin of Astoria, Queens. "So I'm sorry to see that people have come down so hard on him."
"I don't think he's doing that great of a job," another man said.
"I don't feel that some of the things they're accusing him of are his fault," said Harriet Mendelsohn of the Upper West Side.
The next mayoral election is not until November 2017, and while there has been a lot of speculation, so far, de Blasio has no challengers. They are awaiting the outcome of the investigations, Kramer reported.
Also Thursday, the NYPD's embattled Firearms Licensing Unit got a new commanding officer. Inspector Michael Barreto's job will be to retool the unit after the arrest of Alex "Shaya" Lichtenstein, the man accused of bribing police officers to get gun permits.
