Cuomo leads Molinaro by 19 points, poll finds
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo leads Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro by 19 points in Siena College’s latest gubernatorial election poll.
Cuomo, the two-term Democratic incumbent, has the support of 56 percent of likely voters, according to the June 4-7 poll, the results of which were made public Wednesday. Molinaro, a Republican serving his second term as Dutchess County’s leader, has the backing of 37 percent of respondents.
The poll was conducted in English-language telephone calls to 745 people who said they are likely to vote in the November election, according to Siena. The margin of error was 3.6 percentage points.
The poll also found Cuomo leads his Democratic primary opponent, actress Cynthia Nixon, 6126 percent. In a generalelection matchup of Nixon and Molinaro, the actress holds a 46-35 advantage over the Republican, the poll found.
“Molinaro also has a lot of work to do if he wants to be the first Republican to win statewide in 16 years,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
Greenberg said 18 percent of voters view Molinaro favorably, 11 percent view him unfavorably, and 71 percent are unable to offer an opinion about him.
Molinaro spokeswoman Katherine Delgado said in a statement emailed to the press Wednesday that “we are ahead of the marks we set for ourselves at this point in the campaign, but well recognize that there is a great deal of work to be done to inform voters about Marc Molinaro’s inclusive style of governance and his bold vision for ‘Triple A Government’ in New York — accountable, affordable, and accessible.”
Delgado noted that Molinaro is polling 16 points higher than Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino was at this point four years ago and that Molinaro trails Cuomo by only 4 percentage points (44-40) among independent voters.
Molinaro, who lives in Red Hook, was elected Dutchess County Executive in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. He also has been a state assemblyman, Dutchess County legislator, mayor of the village of Tivoli and a member of the Tivoli Village Board.
New York’s last Republican governor was George Pataki, who served from January 1995 to December 2006.