Andy’s on upstate trail
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo shuffled off to Buffalo yesterday to try to eliminate a possible challenger.
Cuomo joined Sen. Chuck Schumer to stump for Tuesday’s Democratic candidate for Erie County executive who’s running against the top Republican rival to a Cuomo re-election bid.
“I would assume Cuomo is out there to ward off a potential opponent in 2014, sure,” said a prominent Republican insider.
Cuomo helped mend local intra-party fences and led a suburban rally for Democrat Mark Poloncarz in what polls show is a close race against incumbent Chris Collins, who was state Republican Chairman Ed Cox’s initial choice to run against Cuomo last year.
Collins dropped out of the race in January 2010 after allegedly making an off-color comment to a woman attending former Gov. David Paterson’s State of the State address and landing in hot water for comparing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), an Orthodox Jew, to the anti-Christ.
Meanwhile, a Marist College poll released yesterday found Cuomo remains popular, with a 70 percent favorable rating, said pollster Lee Miringoff
