NEW YORK — A recent poll conducted in Park Slope, Brooklyn found the well-educated, politically engaged, liberal voters there bear exceptionally high antipathy for Andrew Cuomo’s frontrunner mayoral bid.
Those voters, whose local food cooperative once descended into controversy over the origin of hummus, also ranked the decisively non-lefty Cuomo third among nine Democratic mayoral candidates.
That dichotomy underscores the essence of the race to replace Mayor Eric Adams: Far more voters have a negative view of the domineering former governor than of any other candidate in the Democratic primary. He’s on track to win anyway.
Uber hired California-based David Binder Research in late April to conduct the poll, which POLITICO reviewed in full. It reveals the level of distaste Democratic primary voters have for their former governor, whose candidacy has boosted his return to public life after resigning in scandal in 2021.
Nearly three-quarters of the 400 people surveyed hold a negative view of Cuomo, second only to the incumbent mayor’s 90 percent disapproval rating. Eric Adams, a registered Democrat, is sitting out the primary to run as an independent in the general election.
The distaste for Cuomo — unsurprisingly on steroids in lefty Park Slope — is echoed in citywide polls and has motivated his rivals to continue pushing toward the June 24 primary, even when their campaign sprints look more like a collective death march.
Cuomo trounced them all last week in a Marist poll that showed second-place Zohran Mamdani falling far short and no one else coming close. A super PAC backing the ex-governor continues to raise gobs of cash, despite its presumed coordination with his campaign costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars in public matching funds and undermining the argument that he’s the most competent candidate in the field. It seems every week someone who called on him to resign just four years ago is rushing to his side — often in writing, since his campaign appearances are limited.
“Cuomo is a paradox: He is way ahead and winning easily but he has high negatives and is vulnerable to attack,” said New York City-based Democratic consultant Jon Paul Lupo, who is not affiliated with a mayoral campaign. “His opponents are all counting on other candidates to spend money on those attacks. It’s a classic freeloader problem — a rational decision for each campaign to make but collectively spells doom.”
It may just be that the only way to defeat Cuomo is not with a who, but a how. The candidates can choose a strategy of cross endorsements to capitalize on ranked-choice voting and unify in their opposition to Cuomo. An 11th-hour partnership between Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia in the 2021 mayor’s race catapulted Garcia into a close second place. But such a move would require politicians to buck their tendency toward singular success over collaboration.
Mamdani rebuffed a suggestion by city Comptroller Brad Lander to pool funds for an anti-Cuomo ad. Others reportedly rejected Mamdani’s counterproposal. New York political mainstay Scott Stringer didn’t mention Cuomo in his first TV ad that began airing last week. Even the anti-Cuomo Working Families Party left blank its fifth spot on a hypothetical ranked-choice ballot, choosing no one over a few under-funded candidates.
Among Cuomo’s rivals, no one has successfully zeroed in on why he’s so unpopular, or how to chip away at his strengths: Executive experience in a time of uncertainty, universal name recognition when few people are dialed into local politics, a trademark toughness that appeals to Democrats desperate to take on President Donald Trump.
The candidates’ anti-Cuomo messages have yet to stick, but they are starting to put money behind them in TV ads and ramping them up on the campaign trail. Lander is calling him corrupt — a reference to his nursing home order during Covid and an attorney general’s report finding he sexually harassed women on his gubernatorial staff. Cuomo denies all wrongdoing and is pursuing aggressive legal recourse.
Lander recently dropped three-quarters-of-a-million-dollars on an ad buy calling Cuomo corrupt and trying to out-tough-guy the former governor — a tough task for the bookish comptroller.
Mamdani is criticizing Cuomo’s pro-Trump mega-donors, but the PAC backing him has nowhere near the resources of the one supporting Cuomo. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have suggested Black voters should pick a fellow Black candidate from their own neighborhoods over Cuomo, who polls best among African Americans. Stringer has lambasted his record as governor. And they’ve all, in one way or another, implied he’s mounting a comeback for selfish reasons.
But Democratic voters have yet to respond to those attacks. In fact, outside the bubble of candidates, consultants and local press, the race sometimes feels like it’s barely begun as many New Yorkers remain overwhelmed by national news.
Cuomo led the first round of last week’s Marist poll with 44 percent of likely primary voters to Mamdani’s 22 percent; the ex-governor won the ranked-choice simulation by the fifth round with 53 percent to Mamdani’s 29 percent. With undecided voters factored into the survey, Cuomo started out with a healthy 37 percent, to Mamdani’s 18 percent.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, has tapped deeper into the well of far-lefty support than any citywide candidate in recent memory. He’s out-raised, out-polled and out-TikToked his rivals. And he’s beating Lander in his own Park Slope backyard, 30 percent to 24 percent, per Uber’s poll. Cuomo came in third with 19 percent, and no one else broke double digits.
Nevertheless, last week’s Marist poll shows what Mamdani’s rivals have long privately whispered — he appears to be hitting his ceiling, and it’s too low to bypass Cuomo. He and his supporters in the Democratic Socialists of America have yet to proactively embrace a ranked-choice strategy.
“There is a lot of appetite in the organization to educate people about ranked-choice voting and also ensuring that people are filling out their ballot(s) to block Cuomo. I think where it becomes complicated is that we are so committed to Zohran and we’ve been campaigning so hard for him,” DSA’s Michael Whitesides said, following a closed-press forum to discuss the relatively new voting system. “American politics is so used to this first past the post. My guy or no guy.”
Asked about the campaign’s strategy to defeat Cuomo, a Mamdani spokesperson highlighted his robust door-knocking operation — more than 20,000 volunteers having knocked at least 500,000 doors across the city so far.
“Coupled with an aggressive paid media plan fueled by millions of dollars in matching funds and a relentless focus on an economic message to address the cost of living crisis — an agenda that poll after poll finds to be overwhelmingly popular — we are confident we can overcome Andrew Cuomo’s MAGA billionaires and win a city working families can afford,” the spokesperson said.
Lander’s team saw hope in Marist’s poll, which found him ending the race in third place with 18 percent, after starting in fourth place at 10 percent.
“This poll shows Brad is one of two challengers positioned to beat Andrew Cuomo and end the corruption and chaos of Adams-Trump,” campaign manager Alison Hirsh said in a statement. “And it shows that Brad benefits more than any other candidate by ranked-choice voting, because he is the one candidate who can unify all parts of our city.”
“While Andrew Cuomo has had millions of dollars of potentially illegal ads boosting him on TV through his super PAC, his numbers have failed to improve,” Hirsh added, referring to the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold over $600,000 from Cuomo because of potential coordination with a PAC backing him. Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the campaign “has operated in full compliance with the campaign finance laws and rules” and is confident Cuomo will receive full public matching funds.
The conundrum for Lander, of course, is that he’s been suppressed by Mamdani and risks angering the younger lawmaker’s loyal supporters by attacking him on the trail.
Adrienne Adams’ team was also bullish on the Marist poll, which found her starting the race in third place at 11 percent, even as she has yet to qualify for matching funds that are all but essential to win a citywide race.
“There’s a clear reason why support for Adrienne has doubled without burning through millions of dollars — New Yorkers finally see a candidate in it for us,” senior advisor Missayr Boker said in a statement.
A gospel singer who regularly attends church in the high-turnout area of Southeast Queens, Adrienne Adams is hoping to undermine Cuomo’s substantial lead with Black Democrats — a difficult task with low name recognition and inadequate funds. She has been campaigning alongside Attorney General Letitia James and released a digital video Friday showcasing her large family and New York roots. She’s also been saying she is running for the collective good — a thinly veiled attack on Cuomo, whom she’s implying is in the race for personal redemption.
Stringer, who routinely polls in the single digits, has been holding tight to his cash until the end — hoping to make a final push on TV and banking on his high name recognition in his political home base of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where turnout remains high. Stringer has managed to sidestep any mention of the sexual harassment scandal that ruined his chances in the 2021 mayor’s race — accusations he denies — but he has yet to catch fire with voters or endorsers.
He’s hoping to win over the United Federation of Teachers, which seems to like Cuomo, and the New York Post editorial board, which does not, according to someone on his team who would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
“This is a concerted effort to go late,” the person said. “He has been confident that we should go late with the ads, be lean and mean. From the get go, he’s had a theory that people tune in late.”
The theory on Myrie scoring a long-shot victory is putting out a slew of policy proposals his team believes will eventually resonate.
“New Yorkers are coalescing around Zellnor’s bold vision to deliver 1 million homes, provide Afterschool for All and full-day pre-K and 3-K,” Olivia Lapeyrolerie, his spokesperson, said in a statement. “That’s why he has support from all 51 city council districts and community boards. With matching funds in the bank since March and ads launching earlier this month, Zellnor has the pieces in place to win this race.”
Myrie entered the race with promise but has yet to crack double digits in the polls.
Cuomo is still considered beatable — but the window is closing, said Democratic strategist Trip Yang, who is not affiliated with any campaign.
“If they can successfully attack Cuomo’s record, there’s the potential for his numbers to go down,” he said. “However, if the candidates spend most of their time introducing themselves, which is a rational strategy because of their low name ID, the likelihood is Cuomo wins.”
— Nick Reisman contributed reporting.
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