Cynthia Nixon is running for governor
It's official: Cynthia Nixon is running for governor. She's lining up a challenge to Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
That's her announcement video embedded above. A clip:
I Love New York. I've never wanted to live anywhere else. But something has to change. We want our government to work again on health care, ending mass incarceration, fixing our broken subway. We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us.
(cut to live speech audio) It can't just be business as usual anymore if we're going to get at the root problem of inequity. We have to turn the system upside down. We have to go out ourselves and seize it. This is a time to stick our necks out, to remember where we came from. This is a time to be visible. This is a time to fight.
Nixon is, of course, famous for her role on Sex and the City. She has also been an activist for a range of causes, particularly increasing funding for New York City's public schools.
Can she mount a serious challenge to Andrew Cuomo? The governor's got the power of incumbency and he's sitting on a mountain of campaign money. But one of his key former associates was just convicted of corruption. And in the Siena poll out Monday, only 48 percent of respondents said they would vote to re-elect him.
That said, the same Siena poll asked about a primary match-up between Cuomo and Nixon -- Democratic respondents said they'd vote for Cuomo 66-19. And 60 percent of all respondents said they didn't know enough about / didn't have an opinion of Nixon. (She's famous, but maybe not that famous.)
Terry Gipson, a former state Senator from the Hudson Valley, has also said he's in the pool for the primary.
In the 2014 Democratic primary, Zephyr Teachout managed to win a bunch of counties upstate, especially here in the greater Capital Region. But Cuomo still won 60-33 by rolling up big totals downstate. (Teachout is supporting Nixon.)
So it will be interesting to see Nixon can change the script this time around. Even if she doesn't seriously threaten a Cuomo primary win, she could make things interesting and shift the conversation because the media will almost certainly be drawn to her.
Primary day is September 13.
Republicans
Two Republicans are (mostly) in the pool for the party's nomination: State Senator John DeFrancisco and Dutchess County exec Marc Molinaro, who hasn't officially announced yet but appears to be in a strong position to get the nod.
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Comments
I learned from the most recent presidential election that sexism and misogyny are the only possible reasons for these poll numbers.
... said Herbert on Mar 20, 2018 at 8:02 AM | link
What a time to be alive! I wish her the best in this boys world. Give them hell!
... said Paul on Mar 20, 2018 at 8:49 AM | link
I'm no political pundit, but one thing I remember thinking during the 2014 primary race between Teachout and Cuomo was that more people likely would have known more about Teachout and voted for her if she had announced earlier. She announced that year in June (giving only three full months to campaign before the primary).
I don't know much about Cynthia Nixon (outside of her role as Miranda on Sex and the City) so I'm glad we'll have an additional three months of her campaigning to get to know her platforms.
With the train issues in NYC this past year and many blaming Cuomo (not to mention all the issues people upstate have had with him through his tenure), you can't necessarily rely on the Cuomo name this year to win the election.
... said Danielle Sanzone on Mar 20, 2018 at 10:03 AM | link
I like the message and I like her apparent passion. But it just seems like when she refers to NY its her NY not mine. I would rather have her in the LOB knocking heads, I applaud her desire to hit the gubernatorial home run. But I think she can be more effective from lower down in the trenches. We need more like her!
... said Steve on Mar 20, 2018 at 2:44 PM | link