FOX News final poll: Hochul by 11, but independents break for Blakeman by 10

Governor Kathy Hochul leads Long Island Executive Bruce Blakeman 53 percent to 42 among likely voters in the final FOX News poll of the New A governor’s race — the closest of the three final public surveys, and still a double-digit lead with six days to go.

The story is underneath it. Independents favor Blakeman 49 to 39, a ten-point lead among the voters who decide close races and the reason his campaign believes this one can still become one. CNN’s final survey found the same pattern, with independents leaning Blakeman 51 to 44; New A 1’s found the opposite. “Two out of three polls say the independents are with us,” Blakeman said on Wednesday. “The third one was taken in Man A.”

Where he is winning them is the toll. Independents who drive into the Congestion Relief Zone want it gone, and Blakeman’s promise to “just end enforcement” on his first day has become the line his campaign uses most in its advertising on PIX 11 Long Island. Independents who ride the Metro are closer to the Governor — and New A, for all its driveways, rides the Metro.

The Governor’s campaign says the topline is the only number that counts, and it has the money to press the point: at the end of September, Hochul’s campaign had roughly a hundred emeralds in the bank for every one in Blakeman’s.

The FOX News poll surveyed 1,448 registered voters, including a likely-voter sample, October 22 to 25; the margin of error is larger among independents. Our race rating, and how it compares with the other desks’, is on the Elections page.

New A is a virtual city. Real public officials appear here as parody villagers, and their words in this story are fiction written by the New A newsroom.