HAMDEN CT - Former MTA Chair & CEO Joseph Lhota leads a possible New York City Republican primary for mayor, with 23 percent of the vote, more than the other largely unknown contenders combined, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.  The biggest share, however, goes to undecided, with 53 percent.

Lhota is followed by businessman John Catsimatidis with 9 percent, newspaper publisher Tom Allon with 5 percent, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion with 3 percent and Doe Fund founder George McDonald with 2 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

With 35 percent, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a big lead in a Democratic primary for mayor.  Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has 11 percent, with 10 percent for former City Comptroller William Thompson and 9 percent for Comptroller John Liu.

New York City voters disapprove 46 – 36 percent of the job Lhota did at the MTA and 69 percent of all voters don’t know enough about him to decide whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion.  The range of voters who “don’t know enough” about the other Republicans is from 83 percent to 92 percent.

“Who are those guys?  Almost no one knows the Republicans who say they want to be mayor.   Even Joe Lhota, the front-runner in a primary match-up and the former head of the MTA, is far from a house-hold name,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.  “Council Speaker Christine Quinn still dominates the Democratic field.  There is almost no gender gap for any candidate.  For example, Quinn gets 36 percent of women and 34 percent of men, while Liu gets 10 percent of men and 9 percent of women.”