Bill De Blasio, Joe Lhota, Candidates for NYC Mayor, Recognized By Only About Half of New Yorkers
New York magazine asked a hundred New Yorkers to pick the two out of lineups
As noted on Reason 24/7, New York magazine had an intern run an informal survey of a hundred New Yorkers to find out how many could recognize Bill de Blasio, the Democratic nominee for mayor, and Joe Lhota, the Republican.
A photo of De Blasio (on the top left in the image to the right) was paired with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Jets head coach Rex Ryan, CNN's John King, and a random stock-photo guy. Only 50 percent of New Yorkers asked could identify the right picture as that of De Blasio's despite a highly competitive Arne Duncan (on the bottom left) was the most popular wrong answer, being identified as De Blasio 20 percent of the time.
Lhota (on the top right in the image on the right) was put up with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke, comedian Louis CK, and a stock photo guy. Despite a sleepier GOP primary, Lhota fared slightly better, being correctly identified 55 percent of the time. Cramer was the most popular wrong answer, also getting identified as Lhota 20 percent of the time.
Read Matt Welch on why Joe Lhota might be pretty dang libertarian here, and Ira Stoll on why Bill de Blasio is New York's Obama here