{"id":354467,"date":"2026-09-23T10:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354467\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T10:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:02:23","slug":"letitia-james-lead-over-gop-rival-saritha-komatireddy-shrinks-in-ny-ag-race-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354467\/","title":{"rendered":"Letitia James&#8217; lead over GOP rival Saritha Komatireddy shrinks in NY AG race: poll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The race for New York State attorney general is tightening, with Democratic <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/14\/us-news\/mamdani-and-ny-ag-letitia-james-suing-trump-over-visa-denials\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">incumbent Letitia James\u2019<\/a> lead over Republican Saritha Komatireddy shrinking by 5 points, according to a new poll released Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>James, 67, leads former federal prosecutor Komatireddy by 13 points \u2014 52% to 39%, the Siena University survey found.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s down from her 18-point lead \u2014 54% to 36% <a href=\"https:\/\/sri.siena.edu\/2026\/08\/12\/siena-poll-of-likely-new-york-state-voters-hochul-49-blakeman-39\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">in an August poll conducted by Siena<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>New York Attorney General candidate Saritha Komatireddy at a press conference on Sept. 22, outside the Intrepid Museum, where she vowed to crack down on homeless encampments and get the mentally ill off the streets. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>A key challenge for Komatireddy, 42, is that two-thirds of likely voters have either never heard of her or don\u2019t know enough to have an opinion, said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless Komatireddy can find a way to get more known to likely voters in the next few weeks, it appears that James is in a strong position heading into the home stretch of the campaign,\u201d Siena pollster Steve Greenberg said.<\/p>\n<p>James, the state AG since 2019, is seeking a third term. She previously served as New York City public advocate and a Brooklyn councilwoman.<\/p>\n<p>Komatireddy is running an aggressive campaign and connecting with families of crime victims.<\/p>\n<p>Migdalia Martinez, a grieving Bronx mom whose 12-year-old son Jacob was killed by a stray bullet in July, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/22\/us-news\/mom-of-boy-killed-in-nyc-gunfire-endorses-letitia-james-ag-opponent-saritha-komatireddy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">endorsed Komatireddy in a new ad.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Letitia James, the state AG since 2019, is seeking a third term in office following stretches as a NYC public advocate and Brooklyn councilwoman. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>A key challenge for Komatireddy, 42, is that two-thirds of likely voters have either never heard of her or don\u2019t know enough to have an opinion, said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>The AG-hopeful also held a press conference Tuesday outside the Intrepid Museum, where she vowed to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/01\/us-news\/homeless-encampment-near-intrepid-museum-keeps-popping-up-after-city-cleanups\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crack down on homeless encampments<\/a> and get the mentally ill off the streets.<\/p>\n<p>As a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn\u2019s Eastern District of New York, Komatireddy handled some of the most high-profile cases involving international terrorism, cybercrime, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and public corruption.<\/p>\n<p>But James remains in the headlines, filing yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration Tuesday for allegedly providing energy companies $1.4 billion in funds to cancel four critical offshore wind projects.<\/p>\n<p>James has garnered nationwide attention for<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/08\/21\/us-news\/trumps-massive-500m-civil-fraud-fine-in-ag-tish-james-case-thrown-out-by-ny-appeals-court\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> prosecuting Trump <\/a>and his namesake company for fraudulent practices.<\/p>\n<p>She also commissioned a sexual misconduct probe of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo that triggered the Democrat\u2019s resignation from office in 2021, even as he denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in the race for state comptroller, Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli, in office since 2007, leads Republican challenger Joseph Hernandez 56% to 33%.<\/p>\n<p>The Siena University Poll was conducted September 11-17 among 1,144 likely voters questioned via mobile and landline phones and text. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The race for New York State attorney general is tightening, with Democratic incumbent Letitia James\u2019 lead over Republican&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[393,416,398,57,46937,9,11,10,49,51,50,87,58],"class_list":["post-354467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-attorney-general","tag-elections","tag-letitia-james","tag-metro","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}