Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - When you think of New York State politically, blue comes to mind, right?
A noted political science professor says when it comes to red vs. blue, she says all states are red by nature with clusters like big cities that are big enough to turn the state blue, but she says New York may be blue enough to keep Kathy Hochul in the governor's mansion next week.
Fordham University's Christina Greer says her argument regarding blue vs. red is that all states are red by nature. "Just lots of blue cities in these red states, and do you have enough blue cities during presidential election years to turn it blue and make it seem like a democratic state," states Greer. Greer adds New York has so many different types of Democrats. "You've got your super leftist progressive, but you've also got some pretty moderate to conservative Democrats as well. And so that's what I meant by the diversity of the blue within this deep red state," she explains.
Greer believes New York City isn't as blue as you think. "We had 20 years of Republican mayoralty in New York City. And we know that a large percentage of Staten Island as a significant percentage of Brooklyn, a section of Queens, the East Side of Manhattan and sprinkled throughout who would be conservative Democrat and or Republican," explains Greer. She says it gets complicated to describe NYC when your sort through the districts.
With the governor's race a week away, what does this all mean in the race between Kathy Hochul and Lee Zeldin? Greer thinks Hochul will come out the winner.
"If she's able to articulate a message, not just about crime, and how she's handling it, but you know, she's very clear that New York is a pro choice state and Lee Zeldin record, and some of his past statements make it very clear that he's trying to say I wouldn't do anything, I'll just leave it up to the legislature. We've seen time and time again, that that is not always the case," notes Greer. She says even though voters do go to the polls based on pocketbook issues, they might be a little more concerned about some of Zeldin's ties with insurrectionists, or the former president, and some larger questions about democracy.
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