A LBANY — After having mainly reached out to voters through a massive TV ad campaign, the Cuomo campaign is set to unleash a digital and door-knocking operation designed to motivate women voters in November, sources say.
Campaign volunteers and paid workers will begin this week knocking on “tens of thousands” of doors in the city and the surrounding suburbs to promote Cuomo’s 11-point “women’s equality agenda” and ask for support for the governor and his running mate, former Buffalo Rep. Kathy Hochul, a campaign source said.
Team Cuomo will also target women across the state on social media sites to encourage women to follow the campaign on the website of the newly formed Women’s Equality Party, which was created this summer. The party — and the Cuomo campaign — would then capture those voters’ email addresses, which will be used later during get-out-the-vote efforts, the source said.
In addition, the campaign will use strategically placed digital ads to reach out to women considered likely Cuomo supporters “who need some extra incentive (or) push to turn out to vote,” the source said.
Cuomo had made women’s issues, such as abortion rights, a central plank of his reelection campaign. Cuomo campaign officials say that the separate Women’s Equality Party ballot line will help draw a distinction between the governor and his Republican opponent Rob Astorino, who is anti-abortion.
Sources say the campaign sees women, particularly those who are unmarried, as an increasingly important voting bloc that doesn’t often turn out to vote in midterm elections.
Unmarried women voters make up 28.6% of New York’s population.
“For the next six weeks, we will be running a grass-roots campaign to engage New Yorkers, educate them on these issues and hold candidates accountable on whether they truly represent the interests of women in this election or not,” said former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has helped Cuomo create the Women’s Equality Party.
Democrats both in New York and nationally are using social issues like abortion and pay equity to engage women voters for the midterm elections, which often benefit Republicans.
Hillary Clinton twice last week addressed the issue. And President Obama on Friday announced a public service campaign designed to prevent sexual assaults on college campuses. A day before, Cuomo added the campus rape issue as an 11th plank to his formerly 10-plank women’s equality platform.
Astorino on Friday accused Cuomo of using abortion and gay marriage as “boogeyman issues” to keep from talking about the state’s bigger problems, including the economy.
***
With six weeks to go until the election, state Controller Thomas DiNapoli’s Republican opponent is struggling to take advantage of the first ever statewide public financing program.
Robert Antonacci, the Onondaga County comptroller, is closing in on the 2,000 individual contributors needed to qualify for the 6-to-1 public matching funds. He is only about halfway from the $200,000 in small donations needed.
“It’s definitely a problem,” spokesman Brian Renna said. “We’re working hard every day to get there.”
Without the public match, Renna concedes it will be extremely difficult for Antonacci to mount a credible campaign against DiNapoli, who has been doing the job for nearly eight years and had $2.8 million in his campaign account in July. DiNapoli did not opt into the public finance program.
***
Liberal Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout, who lost an unexpectedly spirited Democratic primary to Cuomo earlier this month, says she’s unlikely to make an endorsement in the governor’s race — but won’t decide for sure until a week before the Nov. 4 election.
