Despite a slew of negative press and recent scandals, a new poll shows New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo likely to win re-election.
A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that Cuomo would get 43 percent on the Democratic line, while Republican Gubernatorial Candidate and Duchess County Executive Marc Molinaro gets 23 percent and Working Families Party candidate Cynthia Nixon gets 13 percent.
Cuomo holds a 57-31 percent lead going head-to-head against Molinaro. White voters back Cuomo 49-42 percent and non-whites back him 73-13 percent.
“New Yorkers say 59-30 percent they want a gubernatorial candidate with experience in politics over someone new to it,” said Quinnipiac University Poll polling analyst Mary Snow in a statement. “Democrats, nonwhite voters and women, in particular, led the charge with that preference.”
Snow continued, “A significant percentage of voters say they haven’t heard enough about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s two main rivals, Duchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and Cynthia Nixon, to give them a thumbs-up or down on what they think of them.”
Nixon held on to the part of Snow’s statement where she admitted that it was too soon to poll likely Democratic voters. Nixon pointed to the recent Democratic primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Polls of registered voters clearly aren’t capturing the kind of Democrats who have been turning out to vote in primaries—the most motivated, most progressive part of the base,” said Nixon in a statement. “Joe Crowley’s poll had him up by 35 points. He lost by 15. In NY-24 in central New York, polls showed the progressive Dana Balter trailing the establishment favorite Juanita Perez Williams by 13 points. On Election Day, Balter won by 25.”
The poll included fewer than 100 African-American respondents. A Nixon representative also said that they contacted Quinnipiac officials specifically about Black voters and were told that they had a policy of not releasing poll samples that small.
“Cynthia is connecting with New Yorkers who have stayed out of primaries in the past because they felt like their government was just serving special, corporate interests, not them,” said Nixon’s campaign adviser L. Joy Williams, in a statement. “When Cynthia is speaking with voters and particularly Black voters, the common thing we hear is that no one has ever knocked on their door or asked for their vote at all. Cynthia is actually showing up and asking what they think. These voters don’t often show up in poll data, but of the thousands of doors we’ve knocked on in predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods, 75 percent have said they’re voting for her.”
Williams also said that the support they see on the ground for Nixon shouldn’t shock anyone because of policies enacted or not adjusted under the current governor. “That’s no surprise given that Governor Cuomo has supported the existence of two school systems and two criminal justice systems—one for wealthy, white people and the other for poor people and people of color. He has supported cash bail and he has refused to provide additional funding to low income school districts—using that money instead to give tax breaks to millionaires.”
Cuomo has found himself tied to corrupt individuals in his circle recently. In March, former top aide Joseph Percoco was convicted of bribery related to development projects upstate. Last week, former LPCiminelli head Louis Ciminelli, former SUNY Polytechnic Institute president Alain Kaloyeros and several other businessmen were found guilty in a corruption scandal designed to steer government deals to politically connected firms.
Attempts to contact the governor were unsuccessful, but in a statement, Molinaro verbally pounced on Cuomo for his ties to convicted felons in his circle.
“Andrew Cuomo’s economic development czar, Alain Kalayeros, today joined Joe Percoco and Todd Howe, guilty on all counts, by a jury of peers,” said Molinaro. “While these men stood trial, make no question what was really found guilty was the reckless pay to play, incompetence of Andrew Cuomo’s administration. He has empowered, emboldened and encouraged individuals to bend the rules, rig the system and defrauded taxpayers. New Yorkers have paid the price of the Cuomo administration’s arrogant and blatant disregard for the law.”