Everybody loves Raymond for mayor of NYC

Everybody loves Raymond for mayor of NYC

David Handschuh/New York Daily News

A lot of New Yorkers would love to see NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly run for mayor.

ALBANY New Yorkers really love Raymond Kelly as their police commissioner and nearly half hope he runs for mayor next year.

Kellys job approval rating is an impressive 77, while his 63 favorability rating among city voters is by far the highest of anyone considering a mayoral run next year, a new poll commissioned by the Daily News shows.

With his soaring popularity, 46 of voters surveyed say the commish should run for mayor on the GOP line while 34 dont want him to and 20 arent sure.

RELATED: RAY KELLY'S SPY, FRISK POLICIES GET THUMBS UP FROM NEW YORKERS

The poll shows that a mayoral race would not be a cakewalk for Kelly in a city where Democrats have a 5-to-1 enrollment edge over GOPers but it also makes clear that the 70-year-old commish would have a real shot at winning City Hall.

He could be a contender, said pollster Doug Schoen, who surveyed 600 city voters for The News. He clearly is the last, best hope of the Republican Party at this point.

When it comes to the intangibles voters might look for, Kelly has it in spades, the poll shows.

More than 80 of city voters view the former Marine as a strong leader, 60 say he is independent and 78 say hes a good manager.

A whopping a 87 believe hed do an excellent or good job protecting the city from terrorism.

And though hes closely tied to Mayor Bloomberg, 68 said Kelly would govern in a different style with a different approach.

For a person who hasnt done any campaigning hes just been doing his job as commissioner that is really an extraordinarily positive poll for him, said state GOP Chairman Ed Cox.

That doesnt mean there arent any red flags.

Just 51 feel Kelly is in touch with the needs of people in their neighborhood, while half say he is insensitive to civil liberties.

Even with the NYPD facing criticism for its stop-and-frisk policy and its surveillance of the Muslim community, just 32 said having Kelly as mayor would hurt race relations in the city, and 41 said it would have no impact.

It says he would have to demonstrate that he could really reach out and connect with ordinary people something he's not had to do as police commissioner, Schoen said. That's all soluble and addressable in a campaign should he mount one.

The numbers are worse in some other key areas.

- Fifty-three percent said Kelly doesnt know enough about issues beyond crime and terrorism.

- Just 27 feel he is versed enough on issues like education and jobs to be a good mayor.