J.C. Polanco, Political analyst and professor at University of Mount Saint Vincent Interview

J.C. Polanco talks with Mendte in the Morning about the high turnout numbers in the early voting stage of the NYC Mayoral primary voting.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get the J. C. Polanco, political analyst and University
of Mount Saint Vincent assistant professor and attorney. Jac thanks
so much for joining us. I see you all the
time on TV. You do a great job, so I
appreciate your time with us this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you so much for having me. Love your program.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I do appreciate that. Let's talk about the turnout right
now in the primary election. And you said, I heard
you on the air talking about how this is really
higher than it has been.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Oh yes, Larry, this is very high right now. You know,
consider this though, write any improvement right if you go
from if you go from two from one, that's great. Here,
what we're seeing is that about one hundred and thirty
and eighty two Democrats have come out to vote. That's
still just a little under four percent of all of

(00:53):
the Democrats in New York City. So just get you know,
we're just about a week away from primary day. Four percent. Now,
some of your listeners may say, JC, that means ninety
six percent haven't come out, right, But.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
You're talking about as compared to past elections.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
As compared that's exactly where I was going as competitive
past selection. This is a boom. We haven't seen these
kind of numbers any time before, So there, these are
really good numbers. You know, early voting is still a
new phenomena for a lot of New York City voters.
The more we do it, the more people are going
to come out to vote. And you know, a lot
of it has to do, Larry, with the the attention

(01:34):
that this race is getting, the attention you're giving it,
the attention the media is giving it, the amount of
money that is being spent because of public financing, our
media airways are completely saturated. It says, if every other commercial,
you'll see Assembly Minimum Donnie, you'll see former Governor Cuomo.
You're on you're on the radio, You're on your phones.
It's on Instagram and Facebook. It's NonStop, and it's it's

(01:56):
getting a lot of excitement. So we see, we see
more and more turnout coming and I really hope that
next Tuesday we have record turnout. And the reason why
I'm so concerned, you know, I was president of the
New York City Board of Elections and a commissioner from
the BRONX, and I was always very concerned about the
low turnout. For example, at one point we had about
fifteen percent turnout in New York City elections? Could you

(02:18):
imagine having such disimal turnout? So anything that brings voters
out and gets them excited is a boom for New
York City, a boom for democracy. So the more they campaign,
the more they're coming after each other, the more folks
are focused in on the debate. Listening to you this
morning talking about the race, focusing on the poll numbers,
the better it is for New York City.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Well, let's talk about the turnout. Even though it's not
that high right now, it's still up from what it
has been, substantially up from what it has been, and
I guess we can assume it's going to be up
for the general election as well. I guess the question
would be who is causing that excitement, whose base, Whose
group of voters is coming out out? Do we know that?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, I'll tell you this. I've been talking to some
of the campaigns and some of the operatives, and it
looks as if it's clearly the two front runners. The
two front runners are are really the reason why we're
seeing so high turnout. You know, you're looking at some
of the numbers coming into Manhattan, some of the numbers
coming in out of Brooklyn, and they're coming in higher

(03:22):
than ever And one of the reasons is this. Some
of them Mamdanni's doing very well in many parts of Brooklyn,
and a lot of those voters are very progressive socialists.
Many of them are new transplants, young voters that are
very excited to come out for some of the Mamdani
And at the same time, a lot of excitement behind
former Governor CuMo, especially in Queens, in the Bronx and

(03:45):
in Manhattan, and in today's polls, Larry, that marriage just
pulls out. We're seeing that former Governor CMA's do the
best in the Bronx, so you know, the best in Queens.
So we're seeing more turnout in the outer boroughs than
ever before. So I think it's the top two candidates
and their investment in the race. You know, there was
a point about a couple of weeks ago where some

(04:07):
women Mamdani had an ad and who what he says
to people, stop sending me money. We have all the
money we need. Can you imagine that, Larry, One, was
the last time we heard anything like that.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
No, no, not for a long time. I'm I don't
think ever I've ever heard anything like that.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
It was the first time I ever heard anything like that.
But and now you have, well a former governor Cuomo
has raised a boatload of money and there's also many
independent expenditures, the folks that are not in line, not
part of the campaign, but really want him to win.
And they're pumping in a lot of money in ads.
And we're seeing a lot of turnout in the basis

(04:41):
of the top two candidates. And if you take them
back and said it's post Larry is becoming abundantly clear
this is a two persons race. This is where we
are now, this is where the voters are hyper focused.
A week before the election, a poll comes out and
it's very clear to all of us now that this
this is going to be a race between former Governor

(05:02):
Cuomo and as sumbly Mum Donnie full stop. Now it's
all about cross endorsements, who's going to support who, and
what kind of strategies these campaigns are going to have
with each other heading into Tuesday so that one of
them could come out ahead. And it looks very clear
from today's pole that former Governor Cuomo is the favorite
to win this race. Even if you bring it down
to if it goes as far as the tenth round.

(05:25):
But today's post shows that former Governor Cuomo wins this
race at around round six and fifty percent of the vote,
with Assembly Mim Mum Donnie at thirty seven percent, and
the Maris poll is one of the most respected ones
out there, so it clearly is going to be a
two person race with Governor Culomo still the favorite. J. C.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Polanco political analyst and University of Mount Saint Vincent assistant
professor and attorney. Look forward to talking to you again.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Thanks a lot, Larry, Thanks keep up the great work.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Thank you, Jac