(The Center Square) \u2013 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is leading Republican rival Bruce Blakeman by 12 points with less than a month until the election, according to a poll released Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Emerson College poll found Hochul has support from about 52% of likely New York voters, while 40% said they would vote for Blakeman if the election were held today. Eight percent were undecided, pollsters said.<\/p>\n
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said Hochul\u2019s lead “is driven by strong support among New York Democrats, 84% to 8%, but independents break for the Republican, Blakeman, 55% to 34%, a notable contrast with other Emerson statewide polls this cycle, in which independent voters have generally favored the Democratic candidate.”<\/p>\n
Among New Yorkers, 34% of voters believe the economy is the top issue ahead of the election, followed by housing affordability at 17%, threats to democracy at 13%, crime at 12% and immigration at 10%, according to the poll.<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight percent say the cost of everyday goods is their biggest economic concern, 12% the cost of housing, 12% taxes, 9% retirement\/social security, 8% the cost of healthcare, and 7% the price of gasoline and electricity, pollsters said.<\/p>\n
The Emerson poll is the latest to show the incumbent Democratic governor in a comfortable position to win another four years in office despite the challenge from the Nassau County executive.<\/p>\n
A recent Siena University poll showed Hochul leading Blakeman 50%-41% among likely voters, a slight change from her 49%-39% advantage in August. A recent Quinnipiac University had Hochul leading Blakeman by 19 points, with 58% of likely voters supporting her reelection bid.<\/p>\n
Hochul is seeking reelection to a second full term with her running mate, former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. She took over as governor in 2021 after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo stepped down amid sexual harassment claims, and won a full term in 2022 after defeating Republican Lee Zeldin.<\/p>\n
Blakeman, who is running with President Donald Trump’s endorsement, is making his first run for governor with Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood as his running mate for lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n
Republicans are pinning their hopes of winning back the governor’s office on Blakeman, focusing on Hochul’s pro-immigration policies, crime, and support for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s leftist agenda.<\/p>\n
Despite that, the Emerson poll found New York voters view Mamdani more favorably than Hochul, with a plurality, or 47%, approving of the job the democratic socialist is doing as mayor, with 41% disapproving, and 13% are neutral.<\/p>\n
That’s compared Hochul’s 40% job approval rating and 46% disapproval, according to the poll. Mamdani’s popularity also exceeded that of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, whose favorability rating was 30%, according to the Emeron survey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is leading Republican rival Bruce Blakeman by 12 points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[416,9,11,10,1411],"class_list":["post-368063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-elections","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new_york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368063","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=368063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}