In Three-Way Match-ups, Hillary Clinton Leads GOP by Up to 24 Points In New York

What would happen if New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg were to enter the Presidential race as an independent? That is what this poll from Rasmussen takes a look at.

For this survey, they took the major contenders in the GOP up against Bloomberg and New York Senator Hillary Clinton in a three-way race.

The numbers turn out like this. Clinton would get 42% if she went against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 33% and Bloomberg 17%, with 9% undecided. It the matchup was with former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson it would be Clinton with 45% and Thompson and Bloomberg would each get 22%. In this case, there is 10% who are undecided. It is the same if the GOP candidate were to be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who would get 22% as would Bloomberg while Clinton gets 46% and 10 are undecided. ( the numbers do not always add up to 100% because they round off the figures). The last matchup is with Arizona Senator John McCain and it would be Clinton 42%, McCain 27% and Bloomberg 20% and there is 11% undecided.

With Bloomberg in the picture, Clinton gets from 66% to 71% of the vote. Back in August, they did a poll matching Clinton and Giuliani head to head in New York and in that instance, she got 78%. So it is evident that a Bloomberg candidacy would take away from the Democrats, but he takes many more votes away from the Republicans and he attracts more independents.

Bloomberg always said if he were to run, he would run to win, not to be a spoiler candidate and now he is saying that he will not be a candidate this time around. Just 35% of the New York voters believe him, 29% do not believe him and 36% are undecided. And then there is 51% who say he should not run under any circumstances and 25% who say he should.

When it comes to the issue of illegal immigration, 58% say an officer should check the legal status of everyone pulled over for a traffic violation and 46% say anyone found to be illegal should be deported.

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer first proposed giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens. He has since withdrawn the proposal. In New York 70% of New York voters are against the proposal and 20% support it.