Well I can't read the article because of ad-blocking, but, what does this mean?

The most popular currently elected official in NYC?

The most popular elected official ever in NYC?

If the former, is it really any surprise? Whats the competition, the police chief? I doubt 5% of residents could even name other elected officials than the mayor and police chief.

I mean is it any surprise? He follows the classic success strategy: 1) Fix things that are painful for people 2) Tell people about how you fixed things that were painful for them.

Meanwhile, his competition spends 95% of their time just texting people for campaign contributions