Cuomo Remains Hidden In The Shadows

A few of us on Twitter were wondering if anybody has seen Andrew Cuomo since he returned from his Israel trip.

It seems like every morning, this is schedule (as it is for today):

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no public schedule.

And why not stay hidden and work things from the shadows?

It certainly isn't hurting his poll numbers, as the latest Quinnipiac Poll shows this morning:

Cuomo continues to enjoy a massive lead over his GOP opponent, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, trouncing him 56-28, which is virtually unchanged from 57-28 in a May Q poll (conducted well before the Moreland mess heated up, thanks to a July 23 New York Times report).

As for Cuomo’s Democratic primary challenger, Fordham Law Prof. Zephyr Teachout, 88 percent of New Yorkers have no idea who she is. Ditto (or nearly, at 89 percent) for Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins.

“Is the governor’s race all over? Did it ever start?” said Q pollster Mickey Carroll.

The governor’s favorability rating is 55-36, and 57-28 approve of the job he has been doing. Fifty-three percent of voters say Cuomo deserves to be re-elected, which is about the same as in May.

It seems most New Yorkers aren't paying attention to the Moreland mess and really don't care anyway - at any rate, they're really not holding it against Cuomo:

A whopping 83 percent of New York voters think state government corruption is either a very or somewhat serious problem, and close to half (48 percent) believe Gov. Andrew Cuomo is contributing to the mess, according to a Quinnipiac poll released this morning.

Forty-one percent of those polled said Cuomo is part of the solution to the swamp that has engulfed Albany.

...

Fifty percent of voters disapprove of the way Cuomo is handling ethics in government, but 50 percent also say he’s honest and trustworthy.

Of the 51 percent who have read or heard anything about the governor’s decision to shutter the anti-corruption Moreland Commission, 77 percent say the shutdown was a political deal with legislative leaders while 11 percent say the decision was good government.

Even Cuomo’s fellow Democrats believe – 68-15 -that the demise of Moreland was the result of a political deal.

Forty-six percent of all voters think the feds should continue the defunct commission’s work, though another 46 percent said they haven’t heard enough about this issue to have an opinion one way or the other. 

So far, the Cuomo strategy of hide in the shadows and hope any Moreland indictments come down after the election seems to be working.

We'll see what happens after Labor Day, less than two weeks away now.

But it's starting to look like, unless we get some more Moreland activity that makes Cuomo look bad (like indictments of Cuomo administration members or Cuomo himself) or some other news that reflects badly on Cuomo, the primary and general elections aren't going to be terribly close for him.

Of course, he can't stay hidden in the shadows forever, can he?