Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, according to a recent poll, is winning his bitter feud with Mayor Bill de Blasio, is upping the ante by becoming personally involved in recruiting potential candidates to oust the mayor — and he apparently doesn’t mind people knowing it, The Post has learned.
Cuomo has assigned state Democratic Committee Executive Director Basil Smikle Jr., a Harlem resident with strong ties to African-American politicians, to help lead the effort.
Smikle has already held preliminary talks with several possible challengers, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn and city Comptroller Scott Stringer, an influential Democratic insider who knows Cuomo and de Blasio told The Post.
“It’s my view based on what I see going on that not only does Cuomo want de Blasio to lose in 2017, he wants people to know that he’ll be having something to do with it,’’ the insider, who demanded anonymity, told The Post.
“There are all sorts of people out there preparing to run against de Blasio, but the governor is trying to make sure that you don’t wind up with five of them, splitting the [anti-de Blasio] vote.
“That’s why he has Smikle out there talking to people, trying to find the right candidate. It’s ongoing,’’ the activist continued.
The Cuomo-de Blasio feud has been in the open for months, and the governor has long been suspected of being involved in early efforts to recruit an opponent to the mayor.
But not until now has a Democratic Party insider disclosed that Cuomo is actively involved in such an effort and that he has assigned one of his top political lieutenants to help lead it.
The disclosure comes just days after a Quinnipiac University poll found that nearly 60 percent of voters statewide believe Cuomo and de Blasio are locked in a political feud — with 78 percent saying the feud is harming the people of the state.
The poll also found that in the city as well as throughout the state, a majority of voters believe Cuomo is winning the battle with the mayor.
While the influential party insider was critical of some of Cuomo’s handling of relations with de Blasio, his sharpest criticisms were aimed at the mayor, whose “egotistical, one-dimensional and imperious style’’ he said had made the governor into a sympathetic figure.
“De Blasio and his people are the best ambassadors to highlight the contrast between the mayor and the governor,’’ the source said.
“He and the people around him act like they own New York, like it belongs to them.”
Tensions between Cuomo and de Blasio have seethed for more than a year but reached a boiling point in late June when, after suffering several Cuomo-orchestrated defeats in the Legislature, the mayor accused the governor of a “lack of leadership’’ and pointedly noted, “If someone disagrees with him openly, some kind of revenge or vendetta follows.”
GOP Chairman Ed Cox is expected to easily win re-election to a fourth two-year term Monday at the state Republican Committee’s organizational meeting in Albany, notwithstanding a scattering of criticisms and one threat of a direct challenge.
“Anybody who thinks Cox will be ousted is uninformed or engaging in wishful thinking, and that includes a few naive journalists who bought into the claim,’’ said a senior GOP official.
Cox, Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, has witnessed a string of crushing GOP defeats during his tenure, including the failure to win a single statewide office. He has also had to navigate a tacit alliance between the state Senate’s Republican leaders and Cuomo.
Donald Trump sharply criticized him last year when Cox was less than enthusiastic about a possible Trump run for governor, and his ouster has been repeatedly sought by Buffalo builder Carl Paladino, the GOP’s hapless candidate for governor in 2010.
Last week, Onondaga County GOP Chairman Tom Dadey, a Paladino ally, suggested he might challenge Cox but he failed to line up significant support.