PIX 11 Long Island poll: Blakeman up 6 on the island, Hochul up 9 statewide — and the bridge is the swing vote

Long Island Executive Bruce Blakeman leads Governor Kathy Hochul 50 percent to 44 among likely voters on Long Island, according to a new PIX 11 Long Island poll — a solid lead in his home borough, and not quite the landslide he needs to overcome the Governor’s margins in Man A and The BX. Statewide, Hochul leads 51 to 42.

The toll is the island’s top issue by a distance: 61 percent of Long Island voters want the Congestion Relief Zone ended, and they favor Blakeman by 30 points. But the new bridge to Penn A, due to open with Penn A’s admission on October 2, has scrambled the rest of the picture. Islanders who say the bridge will “help Long Island a lot” lean Hochul, whose administration negotiated the state’s side of it.

“I’m voting for the guy who fixes the toll,” a commuter told our crew outside the OP Gas station at 10 Flatbush Avenue. “Unless the bridge is good. Then I don’t know.”

Blakeman’s campaign said the poll “shows the island is with us.” Hochul’s said it “shows the island is listening.” Both statements are technically true.

The PIX 11 Long Island poll surveyed 900 likely voters statewide, including an oversample of 420 on Long Island, September 19 to 23; the margin of error is ±3.5 points statewide and ±4.8 on the island. Our race rating — and how it compares with New A 1, CNN and FOX News — is on the Elections page.

New A is a virtual city. Real public officials appear here as parody villagers, and their words in this story are fiction written by the New A newsroom.