By Dan Murphy
The time for independent candidates to circulate petitions for office in New York State is underway, and began on April 24, and runs through May 31. So far, members of the Libertarian Party are circulating petitions for Larry Sharpe to run for Governor, and the UniteNY party is circulating petitions for Harry Wilson to run for Governor on their party line.
But so far, there has been no sight or mention of former Governor Andrew Cuomo circulating petitions to get on the ballot in November to run for Governor again. Cuomo, Sharpe and Wilson need 45,000 signatures to create another ballot line to run on in 2022. Currently in NY, only the democratic, republican, conservative and working families parties have automatic ballot status. Everyone else has to go out and earn their ballot line.
But a recent poll by Emerson College shows that a minimum of 16% of New Yorkers still support Andrew Cuomo and told pollsters that they would vote Cuomo if he was on the ballot in November.
“The latest Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll of New York voters finds that if former Governor Andrew Cuomo were to run as an Independent in the New York Governor’s election, 33% say they would support the Republican candidate, 33% say they would support the Democratic candidate, 16% would support Independent candidate Cuomo, and 18% are unsure,” writes Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of the Emerson College Poll and who titled the release on the poll, “Cuomo is a potential spoiler.”
“Support for Cuomo as a third-party candidate grows with age: 20% of voters over 65 would support Cuomo as a third party candidate compared to 9% of those between 18 and 29.” said Kimball. Previous polls had also pointed to continued support for Cuomo in the black community.
The reason that Emerson can call Cuomo a spoiler is that most of the votes that Cuomo takes from comes from Kathy Hochul or the democratic candidate for Governor. And with Cuomo in the race, Hochul is tied with Lee Zeldin or whoever the republican candidate for Governor will be.
With 18% of New Yorkers undecided between Hochul, Zeldin or Cuomo, the race for Governor is wide open. Hochul has a 45%-36% favorable-unfavorable rating in the Emerson Poll.
But Cuomo is not on the ballot in the democratic primary for Governor. In that race Hochul has a large lead over Tom Suozzi–45%-22%, with 22% undecided and no count for Jumaane Williams the progressive candidate also on the working families party line.
The republican primary for Governor also remains very close, with Zeldin leading at 26%, Andrew Giuliani with 18%, Rob Astorino at 16%, and 19% undecided. Harry Wilson was either not included in this poll or did not register any support.
One thing that New Yorkers can agree on: their disastisfaction with the $600 million in taxpayer dollars going to build a new stadium for hte Buffalo Bills. The Emerson poll found 67% opposed to 17% in support and 16% unsure.
“There is little appetite among voters for the $600 million funding of a new Bill’s stadium, even in the upstate region where the stadium would be located; only a quarter, 25%, of voters support the measure,” Kimball said.
Prior polls had Cuomo as high as 30%, which many believed was his absolute ceiling. But if Cuomo were able to get to 30%, as an independent, then it would truly be a three way race between Hochul, Zeldin and Cuomo in November. And with six months to go before Election Day, anything can happen.
