Gov up 13 pts. against GOPer
Andy losing indies, ’burbs a tossup
ALBANY — As Gov. Cuomo and his Republican challenger Marc Molinaro began making their final arguments to voters this weekend, a new poll showed the governor maintains a healthy lead even as the race has tightened considerably.
Cuomo now leads Molinaro 49% to 36% among likely voters, with three minor-party candidates totaling 7%, according to the Siena College poll released Sunday morning. Another 7% remain undecided.
Cuomo’s 13-point lead is down dramatically from the 23-point lead he held in a Siena poll a month ago.
Molinaro’s campaign insisted the “race is up for grabs,” arguing that Republican George Pataki was down a similar amount the last week of his 1994 race before his stunning victory over Cuomo’s father, the late former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Democrats say it’s not an apt comparison since the percentage of Democrats has grown in New York since 1994, which they note was a Republican wave-year nationally, while this year it’s the Democrats who are charged up in the era of President Trump.
Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said the tightening of the race is a result of Republicans “‘coming home’ to support their nominee much stronger than last month.”
Nearly three-fourths of Republicans say they will vote for Molinaro, while 82% of Democrats back Cuomo. Independents favor Molinaro over Cuomo by a 41% to 34% margin. Cuomo led among independents by 10 points a month ago.
Cuomo is still crushing his Republican challenger in New York City, but only leads by three points in the suburbs. He trails Molinaro by 10 points upstate.
Even though Cuomo maintans a healthy lead, the poll found that for the first time in his nearly 12 years as governor, more New Yorkers view Cuomo unfavorably than favorably.
Cuomo’s 49% unfavorable rating now exceeds by four points his 45% favorable rating. A month ago, 50% viewed Cuomo favorably and 46% unfavorably.
“Voters are poised to give Cuomo a third term,” Greenberg said. “The question appears to be, by what margin?”
In other results, Siena pollsters found that in the race for state attorney general, Democrat Letitia James, the New York City public advocate, leads Republican corporate lawyer Keith Wofford 49% to 37%, virtually unchanged from last month.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and state Controller Thomas DiNapoli, both Democrats, maintain hefty leads over their Republican opponents heading into Election Day, the poll found.
Gillibrand leads Chele Farley 58% to 35%, down from 61% to 29% in October.
DiNapoli, who is seeking his third, full four-year term, leads Republican challenger Jonathan Trichter 62% to 25%, the biggest margin of the statewide races. DiNapoli was the top vote getter in 2014.
Meanwhile, in the campaign’s closing weekend, Molinaro visited 16 upstate cities over two days while Cuomo attended a rally in Buffalo on Saturday and ones on Long Island and Westchester County on Sunday.
Molinaro, during a fiery stop in Albany Sunday morning, repeatedly blasted Cuomo for eight years of overseeing “the most broken and corrupted state government in the country,” and predicted an upset victory like when Pataki beat Mario Cuomo in 1994.