Hochul gets boost over Blakeman in new Siena poll – Spectrum News

Hochul gets boost over Blakeman in new Siena poll  Spectrum News

The governor's lead over GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman has grown in the Siena poll from last month. Gov. Kathy Hochul's advantage over Republican rival Bruce Blakeman has grown in the latest Siena University poll, released Wednesday morning, and retains a strong advantage in the newly-released Marist poll. In the Siena poll, Hochul's lead over Blakeman, the Nassau County executive and GOP nominee for governor, is now at 54% to Blakeman's 40%, up from her 50-41 advantage in September. The governor's favorability is also up, and it's now over the 50% mark – 51%, to be exact. Sixty-eight percent of voters polled also think the governor will keep her office, including 40% of Republicans polled.

"And here’s the bottom line: for Republicans to win statewide, they must win convincingly upstate and in the downstate suburbs to offset the Democratic tsunami that is New York City, and they must win independents by a significant margin to offset Democrats’ two-to-one enrollment advantage," said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. "But with only a week to go, Blakeman and Hochul are running virtually evenly upstate and in the downstate suburbs, while Hochul has an 11-point lead with independents." Hochul's lead over Blakeman in the Marist poll is 11 points, 53-42%, among likely statewide voters. Her favorability in the Marist poll is not as strong as