NYC Mayoral Race Poll 2013 Update: de Blasio Widens Lead One Week Before Primary

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has surged to the front of the New York City Democratic mayoral race, garnering 43 percent of the vote in a recent Quinnipiac University poll of likely Democratic voters. His closest competition - former New York City comptroller Bill Thompson and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - poll at 20 and 18 percent, respectively.

It's been a meteoric rise for the public advocate, who was polling fourth in the race as recently as Quinnipiac's July 24^th poll. Since then, he's moved steadily up. At 43 percent, he passes the critical 40 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Should no candidate reach 40 percent at the Democratic primaries on September 10^th, the top two placing candidates will enter a runoff election on October 1^st to determine the party's nominee.

On the Republican side, a runoff is looking less and less likely, with former Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) CEO Joe Lhota polling at 48 percent; billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis trails him with 24 percent, his lowest showing since Quinnipiac began taking polls.

De Blasio's support comes across a broad coalition of voters, many of whom his competitors were hoping would parts of those groups would be the lynchpin to their own victories.

Amongst African-Americans, de Blasio leads Bill Thompson by 47 to 25 percent; Thompson is black, and has won the support of several prominent members of the African-American community, including former Mayor David Dinkins and U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, the Huffington Post reports.

De Blasio is married to a black woman, Chirlane McCray, and their interracial son Dante has been the subject of many of de Blasio's advertising. The public advocate has used his experience as head of an interracial household in his rhetoric around ending stop-and-frisk, NYPD's policing policy oft-criticized for being discriminatory towards young men of color.

Amongst women, de Blasio leads Quinn by 44 to 18 percent, as Quinn seeks to become the first female mayor in New York City's history. Quinn has been criticized throughout the race by her peers for role in suspending term limits and creating the opportunity for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial third term in office.