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 County results Municipality resultsCuomo: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Rinfret: 30–40% 40–50% London: 30–40% 40–50% Tie: 30–40% 40–50% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1990 New York gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1990, to elect thegovernor andLieutenant Governor of New York.Democratic governorMario Cuomo won a third term in office, making him the first Democrat elected to three terms as Governor of New York sinceHerbert H. Lehman.
Though theRepublican Party andConservative Party had run the same candidate throughfusion voting since 1974, the parties diverged in 1990. The Republican Party nominatedPierre "Pete" Rinfret, a former presidential advisor who became a millionaire in the financial sector. TheConservative Party nominatedHerbert London, the dean ofNYU Gallatin. While Rinfret was a relative moderate who supportedabortion rights,[1] London was known as a staunchsocial andfiscal conservative.[2]
Cuomo won with an absolute majority of the vote, meaning that Rinfret and London's combined performance would not have been enough for a unified right flank to win. Had London received just 38,334 more votes, the Conservative Party would have secured Line B on all ballots in New York through the1994 New York gubernatorial election. Additionally, the party would have been entitled to take over privileges designated for the two major parties, including authority over state and county Boards of Elections.
This election remains the best performance of the Conservative Party, both in terms of number of votes and percentage, for a gubernatorial election.
Cuomo waited until June 1990 to officially announce his intention to run for a third term as governor, just 24 hours before the Democratic Party nominating convention. At the time, his approval rating hovered around 60% statewide, and his popularity meant that it was assumed that he would win reelection.[3]
Nominee
Political commentators noted that Lieutenant GovernorStan Lundine was active on the 1990 campaign trail in a way he had not been four years prior. This was interpreted as an effort to boost his name recognition in order to run for governor in an open field in1994. However, Cuomo's decision to run for a fourth term in 1994 prevented this from occurring.[4]
In early 1990,Rudy Giuliani and J. Patrick Barrett, Chair of theNew York State Republican Party, were considered among the possible contenders for the Republican nomination for governor.[5]
Ultimately,Pierre Rinfret was chosen "by acclamation" as the Republican nominee for governor at the New York State Republican Convention held on May 30, 1990, in Rye Brook, New York.[6]
Nominee
Since this election, the closest a minor party has come to taking over Line B with a candidate of its own was in 2002, whenTom Golisano, running on theIndependence Party line, received 14.28% of the vote behindCarl McCall's 31.50% on the Democratic line, a difference of 17.22%.
The closest a single candidate has been on two different lines using fusion voting since the 1990 election was in 2006. In that election,John Faso received 23.54% on the Republican line and 3.59% on the Conservative line, a difference of 19.95%.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mario Cuomo | 2,086,070 | 51.42% | ||
| Liberal | Mario Cuomo | 71,017 | 1.75% | ||
| Total | Mario Cuomo/Stan Lundine(incumbents) | 2,157,087 | 53.17% | -11.46% | |
| Republican | Pierre A. Rinfret/George Yancey | 865,948 | 21.35% | −10.42% | |
| Conservative | Herbert London/Anthony DiPerna | 827,614 | 20.40% | +16.85% | |
| Right to Life | Louis P. Wein | 137,804 | 3.40% | +0.35% | |
| New Alliance | Lenora Fulani | 31,089 | 0.77% | +0.21% | |
| Libertarian | W. Gary Johnson | 24,611 | 0.61% | N/A | |
| Socialist Workers | Craig Gannon | 12,743 | 0.31% | N/A | |
| Majority | 1,291,139 | 31.83% | −1.03% | ||
| Turnout | 4,056,896 | ||||
| Democratichold | |||||
