Poll: Indicted congressman still ahead — by 19 points

last updated 8 January 2015

Republican Rep. Michael Grimm appears poised for a landslide re-election from New York's 11th District, according to the new poll from Siena College — despite the fact that he is currently under federal indictment.

Grimm has 53 percent support in the Staten Island-based seat, against Democratic former New York City councilman Domenic Recchia with only 34 percent. The survey of likely voters was conducted from Oct. 26 to 28, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The previous Siena poll from mid-September had Grimm ahead by a narrower margin, 44 percent to 40 percent.

Grimm was indicted on 20 federal charges earlier this year, related to alleged tax fraud at a restaurant he operated before his election to Congress, with a trial date set for after the election. And earlier, while that investigation was chugging along, he also infamously threatened a reporter that he would throw him off a balcony, and "break you in half, like a boy," for asking about the investigation of his 2010 campaign finances, which had been the original subject of the federal probe.

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Recchia, however, has run a notoriously slipshod campaign, in which he has struggled to answer questions on national issues and to explain his knowledge of foreign policy.

This bizarre match-up was even recently highlighted on The Daily Show, in a segment entitled "Democalypse 2014 - Wait, How the F**k Does That Happen?" --Eric Kleefeld

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