March 3, 2025

NEW YORK POST: Socialist lawmakers among frontrunners in NYC race for mayor — but still lag behind Cuomo in latest poll

By Craig McCarthy

A new poll has a pair of Democratic socialist lawmakers among the frontrunners in the race for Gracie Mansion — but still lagging behind ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is expected to soon announce his candidacy for mayor.

City Comptroller Brad Lander and state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani appear to split the progressive ballots in round after round of ranked choice voting, even edging out embattled incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, according to the survey by Gotham Polling and Analytics.

In the seventh and final round, Lander would nab 31% of the vote, with Mamdani coming in behind him at 18% — marking the highest support for the lefty candidates to date, the poll shows.

But Cuomo — who is expected this weekend to finally join the fray of frantic Dems looking to replace Adams — ultimately grabs the majority of 51%.

David Schwartz of Gotham Polling — which surveyed just over 1,500 likely Democratic primary voters between Feb. 20 and 25 — said the results point to a much higher chance of far-left lawmaker sitting in City Hall next year.

“This is much closer than it looks at the end,” he told The Post.

“Really, all they have to do is knock two points off Cuomo, then Mamdani gets knocked out and then Cuomo and Lander are neck-and-neck.”

Gotham Polling President Stephen Graves said Adams, meanwhile, had negatives that were “striking.”

The poll, which was funded by the business group Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, found that 84% of those surveyed would not vote for Adams and nearly 60% said his administration has been “chaotic” and that the city hasn’t improved in his first term.

And though the poll has Cuomo as the ultimate primary winner, 42% of those surveyed said they’d never vote for him and nearly 40% said his history of scandals make him unfit for office.

The three-term Democratic governor resigned in 2021 while facing a series of sexual harassment allegations, which he denies, and an uproar over his administration’s handling of COVID in nursing homes during the pandemic.

Graves said the results provide some good news for Lander, who has been seemingly boxed out of the left by a charismatic campaigner in the relatively unknown Mamdani.

Lander has the highest margins of all candidates with 68% saying they could vote for him, and just 32% noting they could not cast ballots in his favor.

“[He] has the most upside,” Graves said.

Mamdani is almost split with respondents on that question — with 51% saying they could vote for him and 49% saying they could not, which Graves said was due to the Queens assemblyman having higher negatives with older voters.

This is the second poll just this week showing Mamdani — who is pushing radical proposals on his campaign, such as giving away bus rides and creating city-run grocery stores — emerging as a serious candidate.

Graves said a number of the candidates with a poor showing — such as state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who just got edged out by Adams in the fourth round at 8% — could end up benefiting from having little name recognition since the voters since nearly half have no strong opinion about her.