Hours after Rich Azzopardi, spokesman for former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s independent mayoral campaign, touted a new poll showing a “dramatic 10-point swing since late August” and a “dead heat” between his boss and frontrunner and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, Cuomo downplayed the importance of polling in remarks at Congregation Ohab Zedek on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Cuomo told a crowd of about 200 at the more than 150-year-old Modern Orthodox congregation that his father, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, didn’t put too much stock in public opinion.

“My father was against the death penalty. He said, ‘On the death penalty, it is 50-50,’” Cuomo said. “I said, ‘50-50 on the death penalty? 78% support the death penalty. What do you think, dad?’ ‘They’re all wrong.’”

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