Latest news with #AdrienneAdams
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Surging Mamdani cuts Cuomo's lead in Democratic NYC mayoral primary to just single digits: poll
Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is surging, cutting ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo's frontrunner status in the Democratic primary to just a single digit lead, according to a new poll released Wednesday. The latest PIX 11/ Emerson College poll has the Queens state Assemblyman holding his own with Cuomo for 10 rounds of ranked-choice voting before being eliminated with a nine-point spread, 54.4% to 45.6%. But with less than a month to the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, only a small fraction of voters appear to be up for grabs, with 3.5% of voters still undecided, according to the survey conducted May 23 to 26. 'With four weeks to go, the question is whether Cuomo can run out the clock, or if he needs to win over second-choice voters to hold off Mamdani's momentum,' said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. In the ranked-choice simulation, the first for the pollster, the former governor continued his strong first-round showing at 35% of the vote and Mamdani coming in second at 23%. City Comptroller Brad Lander was third with 11%, followed by former Comptroller Scott Stringer with 9%, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams with 8% and Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie with 5%. Round after round, the poll showed Mamdani continuing to gain ground by picking up more of the second-choice votes from Democrats after their first-choice candidates were eliminated. Under the system, voters rank their top five candidates. A winner is only selected after getting more than 50% of the vote, with the lowest-ranked contender dropping off each round. Those votes then fall to the next-ranked candidate who has yet to be eliminated. Playing nice on the left has appeared to greatly benefit Mamdani, 33, who has formed a loose alliance with other candidates in a strategic bid to block the thrice-elected 67-year-old gov from making a political comeback. The young Queens pol even urged supporters to donate funds to rival Adrienne Adams' mayoral campaign to help her qualify for matching public funds, after he maxed out his own coffers. He's also part of the left-wing Working Families Party's preferred but unranked slate that also includes Adams — no relation to Mayor Eric Adams — Lander and Myrie. In PIX11/Emerson's prior poll in late March, Cuomo led 38% to 10% over Mamdani, after the assemblyman only garnered 1% support just weeks prior. In ranked-choice surveys by other pollsters, Cuomo defeated Mamdani by double digits — including in the Mamdani campaign's own poll released Tuesday. 'Cuomo has led in the polls since early 2025, but Mamdani has surged, gaining 23 points and winning second-choice votes nearly 2-to-1, cutting Cuomo's ranked-choice lead from 12 points to 9 points,' said Kimball. The primary election is June 24, with nine days of early voting beginning June 14. Cuomo also cleans up in the general election in November — albeit far off. If elected as the Democratic nominee, Cuomo wins with 44% support, according to the poll. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa comes in second with 13%, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams as an independent ballot candidate in third with 10%, and another independent candidate, Jim Walden, carves off 7%. With Mamdani as the Democratic nominee, 35% would support him in the election, to 16% for Sliwa, 15% Adams, and 6% for Walden. About one-quarter of general election voters are undecided. Cuomo has managed to maintain nearly the same approval rating since jumping in the race, with this latest poll showing 41% of New Yorkers view him favorably while 47% view him unfavorably. Adams, though, has failed to gain much ground with New Yorkers now that his historic federal criminal case was killed — only managing to muster 19% favorability while 69% view him unfavorably. President Trump has managed to outperform Adams with 27% favorability, but his unfavorable rating matches the mayor at 69%. On other matters, half of New York City voters think mass deportations of undocumented immigrants hurt the city, while 30% think they are a positive development and 20% are unsure. Nearly half of city voters — 49% — say their family's finances are worse off now than a year ago, 35% say they are about the same, and 16% say they are better off. Meanwhile, 61% of voters support making it easier for first responders to forcibly hospitalize mentally ill people who are determined unable to meet their basic needs, while 13% are opposed and 26% are unsure. As for the Middle East, 46% do not think it is very important or somewhat important that the next mayor has a pro-Israel stance, compared to 33% who believe it is important. The remaining 21% of respondents have no opinion. In the other citywide races, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is out to a dominating lead over Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, 51% to 23%, in the Democratic primary for comptroller. But nearly a third of voters still remain undecided, which were not included. Incumbent Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also runs away with the nomination, according to this poll, leading state Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar 56 to 15. Five hundred Democrats were sampled for the ranked choice voting simulation after excluding undecided voters. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. Overall, 1,000 registered voters were interviewed overall for questions unrelated to the Democratic primary via phone, text survey and an online panel. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Mamdani's camp hailed the poll's findings as evidence that he has the momentum. 'Andrew Cuomo has hit his ceiling, while we're nowhere near ours,' the Mamdani campaign said. The Cuomo campaign dismissed the Emerson survey as an 'outlier' compared to other recent polls. 'But the facts across the board remain the same — Andrew Cuomo is the consistent and overwhelming frontrunner in this race,' said Cuomo campaign rep Rich Azzopardi.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Socialist Zohran Mamdani boasts WFP endorsement in NYC mayor's race: ‘We are right where we want to be'
Socialist Zohran Mamdani boasted Saturday he's the lefty candidate who'll beat ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in next month's Democratic mayoral primary — while taking a victory lap for scoring a key endorsement from the Working Families Party. 'We are right where we want to be,' crowed the Queens assemblyman during a Brooklyn rally surrounded by WFP supporters. 'We are clipping at his heels, and we are going to beat him on June 24,' added Mamdani in a reference to the upcoming Democratic primary. Mamdani is polling second, behind only Cuomo, in the highly contested race. 'We're going to do so because we've built the most competent campaign in this cycle.' The Working Families Party, which will have its own line in November's general election, announced Friday Mamdani is their top choice heading into the Democratic primary. The far-left party — which is pushing a slate of candidates in the Democratic primary in hopes of defeating Cuomo through the city's rank-choice voting system — tapped City Comptroller Brad Lander as its second choice, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams third and state Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos fourth and fifth, respectively. Primary voters can pick up to five candidates in ranked order for the race. Mamdani is the huge favorite to get the WFP line in November, assuming he or Cuomo wins the Democratic primary. Mamdani told supporters to follow the WFP's guidance and rank the other preferred candidates in the order selected by party honchos, urging them: 'Remember not to rank Andrew Cuomo.' 'Over the next 24 days, we will make it clear to New Yorkers that we are going to win the city that they deserve and that we are finally going to send Andrew Cuomo back to the suburbs,' he added. A PIX 11/ Emerson College poll released Wednesday had Mamdani holding his own with Cuomo for 10 rounds of ranked-choice voting before being eliminated with a nine-point spread, 54.4% to 45.6%. With less than a month to the primary, only a small fraction of voters appear to be up for grabs, with 3.5% of voters still undecided, according to the survey conducted May 23 to May 26. 'These are serious times and [New Yorkers] know Andrew Cuomo is the only candidate in this race with the management experience and record of results to fix what's broken and put the city back on the right track,' said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NYC Campaign Finance Board withholds $1.3 million in matching funds from Cuomo, awards Adrienne Adams $2 million
NEW YORK — New York City's Campaign Finance Board dealt a blow to mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo on Friday, withholding $1.3 million in matching funds from him — but gave a big lifeline to his opponent Adrienne Adams, clearing her for $2.4 million in critical public cash as the Democratic mayoral primary election looms weeks away. Adams, the City Council's speaker and a moderate Democrat with appeal among Black, outer-borough voters, is seen as having the potential to chip away at some of Cuomo's base, especially as her standing in the polls has increased lately. The infusion of matching funds, her first this election cycle, allows her to start spending heavily on things like campaign ads in the final weeks before the June 24 primary. 'With these funds, the campaign anticipates an aggressive, on-the-ground and over-the-airwaves blitz in the final stretch as momentum continues to build for Adrienne's effective leadership,' Adrienne Adams campaign spokeswoman Lupe Topp-Medina said. After voting to award the speaker $2.4 million in matching funds, the board members revealed they will withhold another $675,419 in public cash from Cuomo due to their suspicion that his campaign improperly coordinated with Fix the City, a super PAC boosting his run, on a television ad it aired earlier this month. That comes on top of more than $620,000 it earlier this month denied Cuomo for the same reason, meaning he's now being deprived of nearly $1.3 million in public money. 'The board continued an investigation into this matter, and based on the findings of this investigations thus far, continues to find reason that the expenditure was not independent,' board member Richard Davis said of the ad. Still, the CFB also voted to approve a fresh infusion of $1.76 million for Cuomo's campaign. The $1.3 million he's being denied corresponds to how much money Fix the City spent on the ad found to be the product of improper coordination between the campaign and the PAC. Earlier this month, the board gave Cuomo another $1.5 million in matching cash, meaning he has now raked in more than $3 million on top of the $3.9 million he has raised in private cash. That puts him close to the $7.9 million spending cap on the primary. The board's decision to give Speaker Adams matching funds could not have come at a more critical time for her campaign. While Adams' 11th hour mayoral bid has gained some momentum, with endorsements from Attorney General Leticia James and powerful municipal workers union DC37, she was denied matching funds at the board meeting earlier this month for not yet reaching the threshold, making it difficult to get the campaign fully up and running. Whether or not the speaker received matching funds was a key question heading into Friday's board meeting. If she didn't qualify Friday, she would not have gotten another shot until June 20, just four days before the primary. The paperwork she submitted in the previous filing period to the CFB was riddled with errors, with about 70% of the claims the speaker submitted rejected as 'invalid' because of paperwork snafus. Her team said this week they were confident she'd receive the money after raising nearly $400,000 in the latest fundraising period. Without the matching funds, Adams has so far been unable to significantly ramp up her campaign with TV ads. Spokespeople for Cuomo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The matching funds program is designed to put more weight on local campaign contributions by giving an 8-to-1 match for donations of up to $250 from city residents. Mayor Eric Adams sued the CFB on Tuesday for repeatedly denying him matching funds for his re-election bid in part because of concerns about his federal corruption indictment on campaign finance fraud charges. Adams, who has dropped out of the Democratic primary and is instead seeking reelection as an independent in November's general election, said in the suit those denials are in part the reason he's not running in the Democratic primary.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NYC Campaign Finance Board withholds $1.3M in matching funds from Cuomo, awards Adrienne Adams $2M
New York City's Campaign Finance Board dealt a blow to mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo on Friday, withholding $1.3 million in matching funds from him — but gave a big lifeline to his opponent Adrienne Adams, clearing her for $2.4 million in critical public cash as the Democratic mayoral primary election looms weeks away. Adams, the City Council's speaker and a moderate Democrat with appeal among Black, outer-borough voters, is seen as having the potential to chip away at some of Cuomo's base, especially as her standing in the polls has increased lately. The infusion of matching funds, her first this election cycle, allows her to start spending heavily on things like campaign ads in the final weeks before the June 24 primary. 'With these funds, the campaign anticipates an aggressive, on-the-ground and over-the-airwaves blitz in the final stretch as momentum continues to build for Adrienne's effective leadership,' Adrienne Adams campaign spokeswoman Lupe Topp-Medina said. After voting to award the speaker $2.4 million in matching funds, the board members revealed they will withhold another $675,419 in public cash from Cuomo due to their suspicion that his campaign improperly coordinated with Fix the City, a super PAC boosting his run, on a television ad it aired earlier this month. That comes on top of more than $620,000 it earlier this month denied Cuomo for the same reason, meaning he's now being deprived of nearly $1.3 million in public money. 'The board continued an investigation into this matter, and based on the findings of this investigations thus far, continues to find reason that the expenditure was not independent,' board member Richard Davis said of the ad. Still, the CFB also voted to approve a fresh infusion of $1.76 million for Cuomo's campaign. The $1.3 million he's being denied corresponds to how much money Fix the City spent on the ad found to be the product of improper coordination between the campaign and the PAC. Earlier this month, the board gave Cuomo another $1.5 million in matching cash, meaning he has now raked in more than $3 million on top of the $3.9 million he has raised in private cash. That puts him close to the $7.9 million spending cap on the primary. The board's decision to give Speaker Adams matching funds could not have come at a more critical time for her campaign. While Adams' 11th hour mayoral bid has gained some momentum, with endorsements from Attorney General Leticia James and powerful municipal workers union DC37, she was denied matching funds at the board meeting earlier this month for not yet reaching the threshold, making it difficult to get the campaign fully up and running. Whether or not the speaker received matching funds was a key question heading into Friday's board meeting. If she didn't qualify Friday, she would not have gotten another shot until June 20, just four days before the primary. The paperwork she submitted in the previous filing period to the CFB was riddled with errors, with about 70% of the claims the speaker submitted rejected as 'invalid' because of paperwork snafus. Her team said this week they were confident she'd receive the money after raising nearly $400,000 in the latest fundraising period. Without the matching funds, Adams has so far been unable to significantly ramp up her campaign with TV ads. Spokespeople for Cuomo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The matching funds program is designed to put more weight on local campaign contributions by giving an 8-to-1 match for donations of up to $250 from city residents. Mayor Adams sued the CFB on Tuesday for repeatedly denying him matching funds for his re-election bid in part because of concerns about his federal corruption indictment on campaign finance fraud charges. Adams, who has dropped out of the Democratic primary and is instead seeking reelection as an independent in November's general election, said in the suit those denials are in part the reason he's not running in the Democratic primary.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NYC Council delays vote to advance Bally's casino at former Trump golf course in the Bronx
City Council has given a Bronx cheer to a proposed Bally's casino, for now. The Council, headed by Speaker and mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams, refused Wednesday to allow a vote to advance legislation that would allow gaming operator Bally's to convert part of the former President Trump Golf Course property into a casino. Bally's acquired the golf course at Ferry Point from the Trump Organization in 2023, and it's now called Bally's Golf Links at Ferry Point. As part of the deal, Bally's agreed to provide the Trump Organization an additional $115 million — if it wins a casino license. Bally's Chairman Soo Kim complained that a 'whisper campaign' by lobbyists from rival bidders is trying to whip up anti-Trump sentiment among lawmakers to scuttle his casino bid. 'They're saying, 'If Bally's wins, Trump benefits.' That's crazy,' Kim told The Post. He said the Bronx and the whole city will benefit, noting the Bally's proposal has laid out more than $600 million in community benefits as well as jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity and tax revenues. Bally's hopes to build a 500,000-square-foot casino on the Bronx site by its golf course, along with a 500-room hotel with a spa and meeting space, retail shops, a 2,000-seat event center and two parking garages with capacity for up to 4,660 vehicles. Kim also ripped the Council for 'moving the goalposts' by not voting on the matter Wednesday. 'If we don't get a vote in the City Council, we can't advance our bid.' The Bronx and the entire city, Kim said, would be losers. But Council sources, who requested anonymity, shot back that Bally's has been slow-footed in lobbying members to woo support for their project and lacks the necessary votes at this time to bring the measure to a vote. Time is of the essence. Bally's needs the state legislature to approve a bill to repurpose the parkland property for use as a casino. But first, the City Council must give the OK for Albany to proceed via a 'home rule' message. The bids to apply for one of three state casino licenses are due June 27. The state legislature's 2025 session in Albany ends in mid-June, and the Council is expected to meet once more on June 11. The Council provided such a 'home rule' approval for the legislature to approve a law allowing Mets billionaire owner Steve Cohen to repurpose lots around Citi Field to advance his casino bid in partnership with Hard Rock. The state Senate and Assembly recently approved the land use bill for Cohen. Council sources said while some members have raised concerns about Trump benefiting from a Bally's casino license, it is not the overriding factor in discussions regarding the legislation. A rep for Council Speaker Adams and the Council leadership said the Bally's proposal is still being considered, and there's no concerted plot to kill it. 'We're still working on home rule messages for state legislation. The process hasn't been completed for this legislative session,' said Council spokesman Mandela Jones. Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, who chairs the governmental operations committee that oversees state legislation, said Bally's will get 'another bite at the apple' to get the proposal passed in the coming weeks. Bronx Republican Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato, who represents the neighborhoods around Ferry Point, is opposed to the project, sources said. She declined to comment. But Democrats in the Bronx delegation want to roll the dice and are working to muster the vote to pass the Bally's proposals, a Bronx source said. Another Council source claimed Bally's doesn't yet have the support to pass the home rule bill. 'We don't put bills on the floor without the votes,' the insider said. State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez (D-Bronx), who is pushing the Bally's legislation in Albany if she gets the go-ahead from the City Council, said the gaming company's agreement to pay the Trump Organization extra for a casino license was the price paid 'to get him [Trump] out of The Bronx.' 'So while I hate it, I don't want him to get anything on it, it was part of the business deal just to get his name out of the situation, get him out of the golf course and out of the Bronx,' Fernandez said.
