With three days to go before voters head to the polls in the NY-26 special election to fill Republican Rep. Chris Lee’s vacated seat, a new Siena College poll has Democrat Kathy Hochul leading Republican Jane Corwin by 4 points among likely voters.
Hochul leads with 42%, with Corwin trailing at 38% and tea party candidate Jack Davis with 9%, according to the poll.
Democrats have sought to turn the election into a referendum on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to privatize Medicare — and the poll shows that Medicare is the most important issue to voters in this election.
Hochul has repeatedly hit Corwin for saying she would have voted for the Ryan budget plan had she been in Congress. Corwin has tried to use Hochul’s comment in a debate that “everything should be on the table” to suggest that Hochul is pushing Medicare cuts.
Political groups on both sides of the aisle have dumped money into the race. Most recently, the NRCC has spent nearly $425,000 targeting both Hochul and Davis in trying to stave off defeat. American Crossroads — a conservative Super PAC — has pledged to spend $650,000 on the race.
Hochul has jumped 11 points since the last Siena poll released April 27, when she trailed Corwin by 4 points. Voters will head to the polls May 24.
David Taintor
David Taintor is the Front Page Editor at TPM, where he contributes to TPM's Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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