May 15, 2025 • 7 mins
Mendte in the Morning talks to Laura Curran about the latest NYC Mayoral poll which still has Andrew Cuomo in the lead but Mamdani closing in.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to Laura Kerr and political commentator and former
NASA County executive. Good morning, Laura. Hi, how you doing that? Hi?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What's going on? I'm great? How are you well?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I want to talk about this new Maris poll out today.
I think you were right all along. I didn't think
Andrew Cuomo was going to make it through a gauntlet,
but he certainly seems like he's going to. He's at
forty four percent Maris says. Zorin Mamdani is at twenty
two percent. He keeps going up, he does keep going up,
(00:30):
but he's still you know, it's double the lead. And
surprisingly Adrian Adams is now in third place. She's coming
up out of nowhere nowhere, but I'm not sure Cuomo's
lead is surmountable. So kudos to you. You called this
very early on. What do you think is going to happen?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, it ain't over till the fat Lady sings. So
let's wait and see what actually happens in the primary.
But you know it's coming up really soon, about five
or six weeks from now, and I just you know,
the thing about a campaign is when you have someone
as well known as Cuomo and well known what people
like about him and what people don't like about him.
(01:13):
So it's hard to change people's minds about someone they
know so well. And you know, I think even he
would say he's had some negative press over the years,
along with all of the accomplishments and the building of
actual things and Monihan Station and the bridges and all
of that. But the but the negatives are baked in
people's minds. It's not like a candidate who's opposing him
(01:37):
can come out and say some horrible thing and expose
some terrible thing, because everybody knows it already, right, Everyone
knows all the bad the bad press that's been out
there over the past few years about him. And I think,
and I do really think. I you know, people who
vote want their problems solved by the government, and they're
going to vote for the person they think are going
(01:58):
to solve it. And so what are the problems in
New York City right now? There's infrastructure problems, but which
is obviously he's very good at fixing, and homeless and
mentally ill people on the street isn't. And in the
subways is another big issue. And that's something he has
really focused on and come out with plans about and
has experience doing you know, whether it was with hut
or as the governor. So I think a lot of
(02:21):
people might you know, maybe he's not going to be
my best friend, but I think he can he can
do what he needs to do to help the city.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, the name recognition that you started with, that that
is enormous. What the only thing that the people that
were watching the poll said, some of the political analysts
watching the poll, and certainly zorn Mom Donnie brought this up,
is he's not a fifty percent. He still can't get
the fifty percent. And even the poll shows it may
take in rank choice voting the fifth time through for
(02:51):
him to win this. And so there is a lot
of people that just aren't going to vote for him
out there, and that's going to keep him from you know,
having a man when he goes in.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I believe, yes, that's true. And rank choice voting is
still relatively new and it's hard to figure out how
it's all going to work. But if he's a lot
of people's second choice, that could be really good for
him if they go for one of the other guys
or gals and then put him second and he's consistently
at two with a lot of voters. That's going to
be very good for him because honestly, I don't want
(03:23):
to give advice to people who are opposing Cuomo, but
if they just coalesced around one candidate, they could make
the difference. But it's highly fractured. There's a lot of
people running for that progressive lane. They're going to divide
that vote, and I think that's actually going to be
really good for Cuomo as the moderate.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, there's a lot of candidates out there that are
onto that strategy where you were talking about saying, don't
put any one second or third, just vote for me,
don't put any one second or third. It's really difficult.
The name recognition is such a big deal because it's
really difficult Zora momd. He can't even go in the
attack sometimes because he has to get people to know
who he is and exactly. Yeah, and the other people,
(04:07):
some people know who they are, they just don't like them.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, that's the other thing. And people you know, I'm
not gonna well, I guess we could name some names.
But there are some folks who've been run for a
million different things over a long time, and it's like,
oh god, you again.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, right, yeah, exactly exactly kicking around. I'll tell you
what when I look at it, when I look at
who's running on the Democratic slate, and I see Zorin Mamdanni,
a socialist Democrat who's well funded, by the way, and
you wonder where that money's coming from. And then you
have Adrian Adams now in third place. So I think
(04:41):
wreck the city as council president. I'm thinking, oh my god,
I'll take Cuomo. I'll take Cuomo over the alternatives any
day of the week. But we do have a little
bit of time, and it's going to be interesting. Zora
Mamdani's well funded. But then after the election, after the primaries,
I should say, you're going to have four pretty strong
(05:03):
candidates that can all pull at least twenty percent on
the ballot, running against each other. What does that do
to Cuomo?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well it in some ways. Again, when you have a
divided vote, it's good. But also when you have divided vote,
you're not going to get as many votes, right, So
I honestly think the more candidates there are, the better
he will do, because he is much better known than
all of them, and I think he is seen as
(05:35):
someone wild. Well maybe he's not going to be my brother,
my soulmate. He can fix problems, he has fixed problems,
he has you know, he has that whole long list
of things that he did, whether it's building things, or
marriage equality or safegun control that he got the Republicans
to get on board with when he was governor. I mean,
(05:56):
a very strong record of actual accoma plishments as opposed
to just beloviation, which a lot of other politicians do
just blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
But what have you done? You know, I don't want
to talk over people's heads. The four candidates would be
Eric Adams, who's running as an independent. It would be
Cuomo who's going to be on the ballot twice by
the way, he's going to be an independent, and he's
also going to be head of the Democratic tickets. Zori Mom,
Donnie is going to run in the Working Families Party.
And then you have Curtis Sliwa, who last election pulled
(06:28):
like twenty six percent. So all of them can get
seemingly have enough to get twenty percent, which makes it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I know it's going to be really interesting because usually
you expect a crowded candidate in a primary, not in
the general, and here we have, you know, and then
there's some other I think there's another candidate as well
who's running as an independent, So that's another wildcard.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Right, and no matter what they pull, they're still going
to pull some votes. Laura, current political commentator and former
NASA County executive. Good talking to you, Laura. Thank you,
Let's go to Laura Kerr and political commentator and former
NASA County executive. Good morning, Laura. Hi, how you doing that? Hi?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What's going on? I'm great? How are you well?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I want to talk about this new Maris poll out today.
I think you were right all along. I didn't think
Andrew Cuomo was going to make it through a gauntlet,
but he certainly seems like he's going to. He's at
forty four percent Maris says. Zorin Mamdani is at twenty
two percent. He keeps going up, he does keep going up,
(00:30):
but he's still you know, it's double the lead. And
surprisingly Adrian Adams is now in third place. She's coming
up out of nowhere nowhere, but I'm not sure Cuomo's
lead is surmountable. So kudos to you. You called this
very early on. What do you think is going to happen?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, it ain't over till the fat Lady sings. So
let's wait and see what actually happens in the primary.
But you know it's coming up really soon, about five
or six weeks from now, and I just you know,
the thing about a campaign is when you have someone
as well known as Cuomo and well known what people
like about him and what people don't like about him.
(01:13):
So it's hard to change people's minds about someone they
know so well. And you know, I think even he
would say he's had some negative press over the years,
along with all of the accomplishments and the building of
actual things and Monihan Station and the bridges and all
of that. But the but the negatives are baked in
people's minds. It's not like a candidate who's opposing him
(01:37):
can come out and say some horrible thing and expose
some terrible thing, because everybody knows it already, right, Everyone
knows all the bad the bad press that's been out
there over the past few years about him. And I think,
and I do really think. I you know, people who
vote want their problems solved by the government, and they're
going to vote for the person they think are going
(01:58):
to solve it. And so what are the problems in
New York City right now? There's infrastructure problems, but which
is obviously he's very good at fixing, and homeless and
mentally ill people on the street isn't. And in the
subways is another big issue. And that's something he has
really focused on and come out with plans about and
has experience doing you know, whether it was with hut
or as the governor. So I think a lot of
(02:21):
people might you know, maybe he's not going to be
my best friend, but I think he can he can
do what he needs to do to help the city.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, the name recognition that you started with, that that
is enormous. What the only thing that the people that
were watching the poll said, some of the political analysts
watching the poll, and certainly zorn Mom Donnie brought this up,
is he's not a fifty percent. He still can't get
the fifty percent. And even the poll shows it may
take in rank choice voting the fifth time through for
(02:51):
him to win this. And so there is a lot
of people that just aren't going to vote for him
out there, and that's going to keep him from you know,
having a man when he goes in.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I believe, yes, that's true. And rank choice voting is
still relatively new and it's hard to figure out how
it's all going to work. But if he's a lot
of people's second choice, that could be really good for
him if they go for one of the other guys
or gals and then put him second and he's consistently
at two with a lot of voters. That's going to
be very good for him because honestly, I don't want
(03:23):
to give advice to people who are opposing Cuomo, but
if they just coalesced around one candidate, they could make
the difference. But it's highly fractured. There's a lot of
people running for that progressive lane. They're going to divide
that vote, and I think that's actually going to be
really good for Cuomo as the moderate.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, there's a lot of candidates out there that are
onto that strategy where you were talking about saying, don't
put any one second or third, just vote for me,
don't put any one second or third. It's really difficult.
The name recognition is such a big deal because it's
really difficult Zora momd. He can't even go in the
attack sometimes because he has to get people to know
who he is and exactly. Yeah, and the other people,
(04:07):
some people know who they are, they just don't like them.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, that's the other thing. And people you know, I'm
not gonna well, I guess we could name some names.
But there are some folks who've been run for a
million different things over a long time, and it's like,
oh god, you again.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, right, yeah, exactly exactly kicking around. I'll tell you
what when I look at it, when I look at
who's running on the Democratic slate, and I see Zorin Mamdanni,
a socialist Democrat who's well funded, by the way, and
you wonder where that money's coming from. And then you
have Adrian Adams now in third place. So I think
(04:41):
wreck the city as council president. I'm thinking, oh my god,
I'll take Cuomo. I'll take Cuomo over the alternatives any
day of the week. But we do have a little
bit of time, and it's going to be interesting. Zora
Mamdani's well funded. But then after the election, after the primaries,
I should say, you're going to have four pretty strong
(05:03):
candidates that can all pull at least twenty percent on
the ballot, running against each other. What does that do
to Cuomo?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well it in some ways. Again, when you have a
divided vote, it's good. But also when you have divided vote,
you're not going to get as many votes, right, So
I honestly think the more candidates there are, the better
he will do, because he is much better known than
all of them, and I think he is seen as
(05:35):
someone wild. Well maybe he's not going to be my brother,
my soulmate. He can fix problems, he has fixed problems,
he has you know, he has that whole long list
of things that he did, whether it's building things, or
marriage equality or safegun control that he got the Republicans
to get on board with when he was governor. I mean,
(05:56):
a very strong record of actual accoma plishments as opposed
to just beloviation, which a lot of other politicians do
just blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
But what have you done? You know, I don't want
to talk over people's heads. The four candidates would be
Eric Adams, who's running as an independent. It would be
Cuomo who's going to be on the ballot twice by
the way, he's going to be an independent, and he's
also going to be head of the Democratic tickets. Zori Mom,
Donnie is going to run in the Working Families Party.
And then you have Curtis Sliwa, who last election pulled
(06:28):
like twenty six percent. So all of them can get
seemingly have enough to get twenty percent, which makes it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I know it's going to be really interesting because usually
you expect a crowded candidate in a primary, not in
the general, and here we have, you know, and then
there's some other I think there's another candidate as well
who's running as an independent, So that's another wildcard.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Right, and no matter what they pull, they're still going
to pull some votes. Laura, current political commentator and former
NASA County executive. Good talking to you, Laura. Thank you,
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