Professor Alan Chartock correctly notes that Governor Andrew Cuomo should have left Zephyr Teachout alone, rather than trying to get her thrown off the September 9 primary ballot in the Democrats’ race for governor. I’m not so sure that she “knows” that she cannot win, as Chartock suggests. She seems to be running a vigorous campaign, even though most people STILL don’t know who she is.
But they know who HE is, and it isn’t all pretty.” Corporatist” and “bully” and possibly “corrupt”, some suggest, and I think that gives her a fighting chance.
That is why I’m frustrated that there have been no public polls of a head-to-head contest between Cuomo and Teachout. I wish that they be out there asking the question, if only because it would inform people that there actually IS a primary on September 9. Voting is from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in New York City, but only from noon to 9 p.m. upstate.
Moreover, a race for lieutenant governor as well, between Kathy Hochul and Tim Wu is emerging. I can’t imagine Hochul, Cuomo’s pick has such great name recognition that she couldn’t be knocked off by Teachout’s running mate Wu; moreover, from clips from the Teachout-Wu campaign, Hochul is far more conservative than most Democrats in this state. The insurgent ticket of Teachout and Wu is picking some endorsements, maybe not enough to knock off the governor, but certainly his pick for the second spot.
The pollsters keep asking about the Cuomo-Rob Astorino race but usually leave Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins off the ballot. I suspect, if Teachout loses, a lot of disaffected Democrats, irritated by Cuomo’s Working Families Party endorsement, the Moreland Commission debacle, and general irritation with the governor is a bully, will vote for Hawkins, especially if they feel it won’t cause Astorino to win.
But if Teachout wins the primary, Cuomo COULD remain governor, since he’s still on the Working Families Party line, and Teachout and Hawkins could split the progressive vote.
Actually, every recent poll has included Hawkins in the question about who they will vote for Governor. In 2 of the last 3 he polled 7%, in the other he polled 6%. This would be the highest percentage ever in NY for a progressive third party Gubernatorial candidate.
Because of the Democratic primary, the media has largely ignored Howie while covering Teachout and ignoring Credico, the more progressive challenger in the primary. Despite all the media coverage for ZT, Hawkins does slightly outpoll her at least in terms of favorability. The pollsters sayd they don’t include ZT in the poll about who people who vote for because she has no change of winning.
In the last poll, ZT for the first time had a 1% higher name recognition that Hawkins despite the disparity in media coverage.
Once the primary is over, hopefully Hawkins will get more coverage, especially since he is closer to Astorino in the polls than Astorino is to Cuomo, so the real race will be whether the Greens can supplant the Republicans as the #2 party. As the #2 party, the Greens would control the state and county Board of Elections with the Republicans.
I had no idea who he was, and I live here. So… thanks as usual for penetrating my TV-less world with this. 🙂