Hochul holds 14-point lead over Blakeman in home stretch of NY governors race
New York Gov.Kathy Hochul is heading into the final days before Election Day with the wind at her back, according to the final pre-election Siena University poll.The Democratic incumbent leads Republican Bruce Blakeman 54% to 40% in the Empire State’s gubernatorial race — a 14-point lead among likely voters, the survey released Wednesday claims.Her lead grew from 9 points (50% to 41%) in last month’s Siena survey, a five-point jump.“Heading into the final stretch, Hochul has a 14-point lead, with Blakeman quickly running out of time to close a gap that is growing rather than narrowing,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said.Meanwhile, in the race for state attorney general, Democratic incumbent Letitia James leads Republican Saritha Komatireddy 54% to 39%.In the race for state comptroller, four-term Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli has the backing of 59% of voters compared to 32% for Republican Joseph Hernandez.A key finding in the poll is that registered independents favor Democratic incumbent Hochul and James by 10 points and 11 points, respectively, over their GOP opponents.Blakeman led among independents by 5 points last month.In 2022, Hochul defeated GOP rival Lee Zeldin by a narrow 6 points because he won over independent voters.In the Empire State, where Dems outnumber Republicans by more than 2 to 1, a Republican candidate needs to dominate votes not affiliated with a political party for any shot at winning a statewide race.“And here’s the bottom line: for Republicans to win statewide, they must win convincingly upstate and in the downstate suburbs to offset the Democratic tsunami that is New York City, and they must win independents by a significant margin to offset Democrats’ two-to-one enrollment advantage,” Greenberg said.
“But with only a week to go, Blakeman and Hochul are running virtually evenly upstate and in the downstate suburbs, while Hochul has an 11-point lead with independents, Hochul leads 67% to 23% among likely New York...