If Rob Astorino wants to be elected governor, he’ll have to start giving New Yorkers a reason to vote for him. Soon.
Polls confirm it. With just 90 days until Election Day, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC/Marist College poll puts Gov. Cuomo ahead of the Republican county exec by 31 points. Another poll last week also showed a wide gap: 56 percent to 32 percent.
Even more telling: While Cuomo’s support this week slipped 5 points since July, Astorino’s numbers didn’t climb. Instead, 53 percent of voters say they never heard of Astorino or have no opinion of him.
The challenger’s got his work cut out for him. True, he’s boxed in by a shoestring budget — $2.4 million, versus $35 million for Cuomo.
Also true: Many state Republicans, pols as well as donors, are shamelessly backing his Democratic opponent. If this weren’t enough, the head of the Republican Governors Association, Chris Christie, publicly labeled Astorino “a lost cause.”
Astorino hasn’t helped himself with a campaign that thus far has focused on only Cuomo’s flaws — his Moreland Commission woes, for example.
We don’t hear much from Rob Astorino about what he intends to do, if elected, to better the lives of New Yorkers. So it’s no surprise we haven’t seen any groundswell of support.
Astorino has many possibilities to choose from in crafting an agenda — from real relief for individual taxpayers to opening the state to the fracking boom to transforming a state that now has one of the most hostile business environments in America.
Exposing Cuomo’s weaknesses is a must. But Astorino needs to tell voters how his policies would make things better.