New York gubernatorial election, 1994

New York gubernatorial election, 1994

1990 ← November 8, 1994 → 1998

Candidate George Pataki Mario Cuomo Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 2,488,631 2,364,904 Percentage 48.8% 45.4%

County results

Governor before election Mario Cuomo Democratic Elected Governor George Pataki Republican

Elections in New York
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The New York gubernatorial election of 1994 was an election for the state governorship held on November 8, 1994. The election resulted in the defeat of Democratic incumbent Governor Mario Cuomo by Republican George Pataki.

Results

Primaries

Democratic Primary	popular vote	percentage	Republican Primary	popular vote	percentage
Mario Cuomo	548,762	(79.45%)	St. Sen. George Pataki	273,620	(75.60%)
Lenora Fulani	141,918	(20.55%)	Richard M. Rosenbaum	88,302	(24.40%)

Libertarian Nomination

The original Libertarian candidate was New York City radio personality Howard Stern, who announced his candidacy for governor on his nationally syndicated radio show on March 22, 1994 on a platform of reinstating the death penalty and promising to resign as soon as this goal was accomplished. Shortly thereafter the Libertarian Party drafted Stern to run on their ticket; Stern won the party's nomination by a two-thirds majority over Buffalo activist James Ostrowski on the first ballot at their state convention on April 23, 1994. However, Stern refused to file the financial disclosures required by law of any party seeking to hold public office; he filed suit against the state of New York arguing the law violated his right to privacy and freedom of association. When the court denied his petition for injunction, Stern called a press conference on August 4, 1994 and withdrew from the election.

Robert L. Schulz, a political activist from Queensbury, New York, replaced Stern on the statewide ballot. Stern's running mate, Stan Dworkin of Westchester County, remained on the slate as candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

General Campaign

Though early on in the election Cuomo lead by as much as ten points, Pataki was eventually able to tie him due to his difficulty in defending his record. Pataki promised to cut income taxes by 25 percent which appealed to voters in an economic downturn.

One key issue in the election was capital punishment. Cuomo had long been a staunch opponent of the death penalty while Pataki supported it. In the 1980s and early 1990s most New Yorkers supported capital punishment due to high crime rates. Republican ads pointed to the case of Arthur Shawcross, a multiple murderer convicted of manslaughter who was paroled by New York in 1987 and committed additional murders while on release (during the time Cuomo was governor). This revelation caused a significant loss of support for Cuomo.

Polling

Source	Date	Pataki (R)	Cuomo (D)	Golisano (IF)
Buffalo News	Nov. 6, 1994	38%	42%	5%
Marist Institute	Nov. 3, 1994	40%	43%	7%
New York Daily News	Nov. 3, 1994	36%	50%	7%
New York Post/FOX-TV	Nov. 2, 1994	32%	46%	-
New York Times	Oct. 31, 1994	34%	44%	-
New York Daily News/WNBC	Oct. 30, 1994	42%	43%	-
New York Post/FOX-TV	Oct. 30, 1994	40%	36%	-
New York Times/WCBS-TV	Oct. 7, 1994	44%	41%	-
Quinnipiac	Oct. 2, 1994	38%	42%	-
Marist Institute	Oct. 2, 1994	44%	38%	-
WROC-TV/WIXT-TV	Sep. 16, 1994	41%	35%	-
New York Post/Buffalo News	Sep. 11, 1994	43%	41%	-

Results

General election results

Governor candidate	Running Mate	Party	Popular Vote (PV)
George E. Pataki	Betsy McCaughey Ross	Republican, Conservative, Tax Cut Now	2,488,631	(48.8%)
Mario M. Cuomo	Stan Lundine	Democratic, Progressive	2,364,904	(45.4%)
B. Thomas Golisano	Dominick Fusco	Independence Fusion	217,490	(4.1%)
Robert T. Walsh	Virginia E. Sutton	Right to Life	67,750	(1.3%)
Robert L. Schulz	Stan Dworkin	Libertarian	9,506	(0.2%)
Lawrence Lane	May Nell Bockman	Socialist Workers	5,410	(0.1%)