A new Siena College poll shows that Governor Andrew Cuomo still has a double-digit lead over his Republican challenger, Marc Molinaro, but that lead has narrowed.
The survey shows that the incumbent Democrat has a 13 point lead over Molinaro, 49-36 percent, compared to a 22 point lead of 50-28 percent in October.
Pollster Steve Greenberg says that more Republicans are supporting Molinaro than a month ago.
“Days before voters go to the polls, Molinaro has narrowed Cuomo’s lead. Republicans are ‘coming home’ to support their nominee much stronger than last month, although Cuomo continues to do better with Democrats than Molinaro does with Republicans. Independents have flipped, giving Molinaro a seven-point lead after favoring Cuomo by 10 points last month,” Greenberg said. “Cuomo’s huge lead in New York City more than cushions his narrow three-point lead in the downstate suburbs, and upstate, where Molinaro leads by 10 points.”
“For the first time since he’s been governor, more voters now view Cuomo unfavorably, 49 percent, than view him favorably, 45 percent, down from 50-46 percent last month. While Democrats and New York City voters overwhelmingly view him favorably, Republicans, independents and upstate voters overwhelmingly view him unfavorably,” Greenberg said.
But Greenberg says New Yorkers do appear to be poised to give Cuomo a third-term.
Siena also polled voters on other statewide races. Democratic incumbent Kirstin Gillibrand leads Republican Chele Farley by 23 points; Democratic incumbent State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli leads Republican Jonathan Trichter 62-25 percent, and in the race for Attorney General, where there are two first-time candidates, Democrat Tish James leads Republican Keith Wofford, 49-37 percent.
The Siena Poll also shows that by a 47-40 percent margin, voters say New York is headed in the wrong direction, and Greenberg says that’s the most pessimistic voters have been about the direction of the state in more than three years. And he says that voters surveyed are even more pessimistic about the direction of the country, saying the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, by a 56-39 percent margin.
The polls across the state on Tuesday are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. WXXI will have extensive election coverage starting at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, with reports from NPR and the WXXI news team on AM 1370, FM 107.5 and streaming at wxxinews.org.
WXXI-TV will have complete coverage starting at 8 p.m. from PBS with local results anchored by WXXI's Helene Biandudi Hofer at 8:57, 9:57 and 10:57 p.m. WXXI-TV can be viewed over-the-air on Digital Television channel 21.1 as well as on Spectrum Cable channels 11 (Standard Definition) and 1221 (High Definition)
