And the city’s most popular politician is …

Chaka Fattah.

Yep. Well, at least among Democrats who say they’re likely to vote in May’s primary. But that’s where all the action is, anyway.

He’s more popular than Nutter. More popular than Brady. More popular than Bill Green or Anthony Williams. Does laps around Tom Knox and Sam Katz.

According to the new release from Municipoll. Fattah, the city’s (relatively, at least compared to Brady) low-key congressman, has a 56 percent approval rating among likely Democratic voters, to Nutter’s 52 percent (which strikes me as oddly high, but whatever); Green’s 34 percent (though, in fairness, Green has fairly low name recognition, so he’s nowhere to go but up—except maybe down); Brady’s 45 percent; and Williams’ 39 percent.

Municipoll, a Pennsylvania polling outfit that looks to be rather new (and consequently, doesn’t have much of a record to assess, so grain of salt), was, of course, polling the potential mayor’s race, which would be a lot more interesting if, well, there was more than one guy running. But there’s not. Barring some last minute entry, Michael Nutter will get a free pass this year—which, to be honest, I find a bit depressing, but whatevs—and chances are, he’s get elected anyway. Per the poll:

Municipoll.com

He beats a generic opponent, which is a pretty good sign that there’s not a wave of populist discontent about to topple him. He beats a Green/Williams tag team. He beats a Williams/Katz tag team (why the hell a company bothers to poll people who’ve already said they’re not running is beyond me). Interestingly, in Municipoll’s first poll—at least, the oldest I found on their website—last August found Katz in a strong position to challenge Nutter. Not so much anymore, it seems, even if he wanted to.

Municipoll did poll a Nutter/Fattah matchup. Well, kinda.

Municipoll.com

Fattah, you’ll notice, places second, with the anti-Nutter votes split among seven others. Just for shits and giggles, I would’ve liked to see a head-to-head—even though Fattah hasn’t given the slightest indication that he’s interested in running—but it ain’t there. Anyway, Nutter closed strong to beat Fattah last go-round, even with then-Senator Obama’s endorsement.

I’d touch on the poll’s other ostensibly counterintuitive finding—that Nutter has considerably more support among whites than blacks—but this magazine did an excellent job dissecting that issue in the current edition.