Mayoral candidate Manuel Medina on Tuesday earned the endorsement of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association — the same day poll numbers leaked from Mayor Ivy Taylor’s campaign, showing that she’s pulled significantly ahead of her two main challengers.

Medina, Taylor and District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg are among more than a dozen candidates vying in the May 6 municipal election for a two-year term as mayor.

Association President Chris Steele said Medina seemed to be an uncommon mayoral candidate and that the union checked into his background, including his business and personal background.

“He’s a man of his word,” said Steele, whose union endorsed Dan Patrick, R-Houston, for lieutenant governor in his 2014 run against then-state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. The following year, the union endorsed Van de Putte in her failed bid against Taylor in the 2015 mayoral race.

Steele said the fire union is most concerned with ensuring the election of a mayor who will focus on “basic city services,” such as public safety and avoiding projects such as the now-dead streetcar proposal, the very alive Vista Ridge water pipeline and the Portland loo — a 24/7 outdoor public bathroom.

Jeff Judson, from the local tea party, on Tuesday also threw his support behind Medina, who’s positioned himself as a local populist finding some support from the left and right in this nonpartisan election.

Medina has railed against City Manager Sheryl Sculley and the historic $850 million proposed bond program on the same municipal ballot. He’s also advocated for building a rail line between San Antonio and Austin (and San Antonio to Monterrey, Mexico), and declared that the Alamo City is and should be a sanctuary city.

Christian Anderson, Taylor’s campaign manager, pulled no punches when reacting to the fire union endorsement.

“Which Manuel Medina did the union endorse? The Manuel Medina who'll bankrupt the City with his wild campaign promises, like building a train to Monterrey, Mexico? Or the man who never worried about protecting taxpayers until he decided to run for mayor? Or the chest-beating party boss who made his name dividing us but who now promises to unite us?” Anderson said. “Mayor Taylor believes in opportunity for all San Antonians. Manuel Medina believes in opportunity for Manuel Medina.”

Meanwhile, the finance committee of Taylor’s campaign received an executive summary of a poll conducted by the campaign. The San Antonio Express-News obtained the summary and accompanying memo, written by Anderson, addressed to the committee.

“As previously discussed, we commissioned a survey from Baselice & Associates, which I consider the best polling firm operating in Texas,’ Anderson wrote. “We got the results last week, and they clearly show the Mayor has the opportunity to win re-election without a run-off.”

The memo also cites, but does not disclose, “independent poll results” the campaign was briefed on in January, and concludes that Nirenberg is in the “weakest position.”

The memo frames Medina as being the candidate the campaign is more concerned about (”The best news for us is that Mayor Taylor is consolidating her support at a much faster pace than Medina.”), but it’s difficult to tell whether Taylor and her advisers believe that to truly be the case, given the general consensus from sources that the campaign intended for the memo and executive summary to leak.

The poll was conducted March 9-12 and surveyed 400 “randomly selected registered voters,” 45 percent of whom were reached by cell phone.

The Baselice poll shows that only 10 percent of those polled had never heard of Taylor, while Medina and Nirenberg were at 40 and 44 percent. The poll also said that 65 percent rated Taylor positively while 25 percent and 30 percent had favorable ratings for Medina and Nirenberg, respectively.

Overall poll numbers show Taylor leading with 53 percent of the vote, to Nirenberg’s 16 and Medina’s 13.

But Kelton Morgan, Nirenberg’s campaign manager, questioned how the pollster arrived at those numbers, noting that what information is first provided and how the questions are asked can wildly change results. Morgan said that while Baselice is a respected polling firm, he has doubts about this particular survey.

While the executive summary — which shows only good news for Taylor — is circulating, the detailed information hasn’t leaked. Morgan said without the particulars, it’s difficult to discern how the poll arrived at the numbers that it did.

The Baselice results, he continued, are an outlier from what he’s seen from polling done by Nirenberg’s campaign and others, which he says show Taylor and Nirenberg heading to a June run-off.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh