Gov. Chicken

Thursday marks five weeks since Gov. Cuomo won the Democratic primary — 35 days that he’s been dodging any debate with his Republican challenger, Marc Molinaro. What is he afraid of ? His campaign not only has millions more than Molinaro’s, the gov has the edge of incumbency and a state that leans heavily Democratic: No Republican has won a statewide race since 2002. Plus, anti-Trump anger has Dem voters fired up to make it to the polls this year.

Cuomo won’t even fall back on his usual condition to debate only if all the minor-party candidates are on stage, too: He’s that determined to avoid any face-to-face confrontation.

Yes, the governor has always been a weak debater; he came off horribly in his one-onone with Cynthia Nixon during the primary. But he’s never been this chicken before.

All Cuomo wants to do is lay low and talk about President Trump. Plainly, he’s afraid a substantive debate would expose his failures on issues from the massive deterioration of the subways on his watch to the corruption convictions of so many of his close associates.

And the fact that, after vowing to clean up Albany, he’s instead become a total creature of the system — raising tens of millions for his campaign by earning the gratitude of every special interest in the state.

Maybe Cuomo is just chicken — or maybe he figures that an open debate might hurt him so badly that he could actually lose.