Poll: Mangano Opens Lead in County Executive Race

County Executive Ed Mangano has opened up a large lead over challenger Tom Suozzi, according to a poll released Saturday night.

Mangano led his Democratic rival by a 52 percent to 35 percent margin, which reflects a major change from an August poll, when the two candidates were statistically even. 

The poll, conducted by Siena College in conjunction with Cablevision's News 12 and Newsday, also showed a big increase in Suozzi's unfavorable ratings. The most recent poll showed 46 percent of likely voters had an unfavorable view of Suozzi, while 45 percent thought of him favorably. In August, 53 percent had a favorable view of the former county executive, while only 31 percent thought of him negatively. 

The disappointing poll results for Suozzi led him to fire off an email to supporters on Saturday evening, reminding voters that he had a 22-point lead over Mangano in 2009.

"We all know how that wrong that turned out!" Suozzi wrote, referring to his 386-vote loss to Mangano in 2009 that kept Suozzi from earning a third term as county executive.

According to the new survey, Suozzi is losing the key battle for independents. Those who weren't registered as Democrat or Republican favored Mangano by a hefty 53 percent to 27 percent margin. Men supported Mangano by 21 percent, while women supported him by 14 percent. 

The spirited race for comptroller was much tighter, according to the Siena survey. Republican Comptroller George Maragos led Howard Weitzman 39 percent to 38 percent, which each candidate comfortably ahead with voters in their own party.

District Attorney Kathleen Rice had a comfortable 63 percent to 26 percent lead over Howard Sturim. 

The poll surveyed 710 likely voters in Nassau County.