Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Rob Astorino will square off on live television Wednesday in the only scheduled gubernatorial debate before the Nov. 4 election. But it won”™t be a one-on-one event.
Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and Libertarian candidate Michael McDermott will join the incumbent Cuomo and Astorino at the debate in Buffalo, which will be broadcast locally at 8 p.m. on WNET. Astorino”™s campaign has criticized Cuomo for refusing to debate one on one, saying they agreed to eight debates while Cuomo”™s camp only agreed to two.
The second debate Cuomo”™s campaign agreed to, a radio debate on WNYC, was turned down by Astorino because, Astorino said, the governor refused to allow WNBC to televise that debate. Cuomo faced a Democratic Party challenge from Zephyr Teachout but went the entire primary campaign without debating her.
With only days left until the election, Astorino continues to close the gap in poll numbers between him and Cuomo. He had his best showing to date in a Wednesday Siena College poll but still lagged by 21 points.
Cuomo”™s favorability rating, 54 percent, is the lowest it has been in nine years Siena has tallied that number, but he still appears poised to win re-election despite polling at 9 points below his 2010 results. Green Party candidate Hawkins is complicating Cuomo”™s support from liberals, receiving 9 percent of the likely vote, according to the poll, a strong showing for a third-party candidate. If such a result occurs on election night, many pundits expect the disconnect between Cuomo and liberal New Yorkers will affect his chances of receiving national support to run for president in the future.
