As the only Democrat who has officially declared to run for the New York gubernatorial race, the first female governor of the Empire State has the majority of registered voters' confidence, according to a new poll.
With months still to go until the 2022 primary election, Gov. Kathy Hochul leads her potential opponents by between 14 and 19 points in three scenarios, a Siena College poll released Tuesday found. Hochul leads 31% followed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Cuomo, who resigned in August following James' investigation into allegations he sexually harassed several women in and outside his administration, gets 17%, according to the poll conducted Oct. 10-14 among 801 New York State registered voters. But if he's excluded, Hochul gets 39%.
In a one-on-one race, Hochul leads James 47-31%.
“In all three horseraces, the vote is tight in New York City, the region producing the most Democratic primary votes, but downstate suburban and upstate Democrats give Hochul large leads in all three matchups,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
“Predicting June’s Democratic gubernatorial ballot 36 weeks from primary day, four months before a state party convention with only Hochul declared is not for the faint hearted," he added, emphasizing that the field is still mostly unknown because none of the other Democrats have said they will run against Hochul.
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Another poll released last week by Marist showed similar findings. Cuomo's team insists the former governor has no intention of running again. People also appear fine with that in both polls.
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Williams is the only person who has declared that he has launched an exploratory committee for the race.
When it comes to favorability, Hochul has a 42-26% rating, down from 42-17% last month, according to the poll.
“Interestingly, Hochul (58-12%) and James (54-12%) have similar favorability ratings among Democrats. And while both are more known to Democrats than other voters, both are still largely unknown to about one-third of Democrats. A long way to go,” Greenberg said. “Williams has a 37-10 favorability rating with Democrats, while Cuomo is 49-43% and de Blasio is 36-47%.”
