Gay Irish politician is now set to be the next Mayor of New York City say new polls

Opinion polls gives Christine Quinn a massive 20 point lead in Democratic primary

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Christine Quinn marches with her father at Dublin's St. Patrick's Day parade

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An Irish American lesbian politician is now the unquestioned front runner to be New York’s next mayor, two new opinion polls reveal.

Christine Quinn, whose grandmother sailed on the Titanic and lived to tell the tale, looks like she's making her own history as she has raced to a 20 point lead in the Democratic nomination race for mayor in 2013.

She leads her major Republican rival Police Commissioner Ray Kelly by 13 points.

Indeed, the only person who may stop her is Kelly, who is being wooed by Republicans to run on their ticket.

Kelly, according to a separate  poll in the New York Daily News,  trails Quinn by a 49 percent to 36 percent margin, with 15 percent not sure.

Either way it seems New York will have its first Irish Mayor since Robert Wagner in 1965 whose mother was from County Cork, like Quinn’s family. New York may also have its first female and gay mayor.

The poll, as seen in the New York Post, showed that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has jumped to a massive 20-point lead. The Marist College poll released last night put Quinn at 32 percent; former Comptroller Bill Thompson, 12 percent; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, 10 percent; Comptroller John Liu, nine percent; Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, seven percent and publishing executive Tom Allon, one percent. Twenty-nine percent were undecided.

Quinn’s clout is in Manhattan where she has massive support,with  over 50 percent of the vote. Gay voters and Irish Americans go heavily for her but she is also enjoying Jewish support.

Quinn is very popular in the Irish American community. She has allotted millions in city funds for  the building of a new Irish Arts Center in the city and is a frequent attender at Irish events.

Irish neighborhoods Quinn and Kelly would be fighting over include North Riverdale, Bronx Woodlawn, Bronx, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn Marine Park, Brooklyn, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn,Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, Broad Channel, Belle Harbor, Breezy Point, Queens Rockaway Park, Queens, Rockaway Beach, Queens,Sunnyside, Queens, Maspeth, Queens, Woodside, Queens St. George, Staten Island, West Brighton, Staten Island Randall Manor, Staten Island.

Quinn has enjoyed a burst of publicity recently over such  gay marriage and she has announced she will marry longtime girlfriend Kim Catullo in June.

Talking about those plans in the wak of the passage of gay marriage in New York, Quinn stated "We were loath to talk about our plans because we didn't want to get our hopes up," Quinn said. "I never said in my own mind, 'This would absolutely happen.' But now we can start to plan."

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