Republican businessman Anthony Constantino is threatening to sue the pollster behind a shock new survey that has him trailing his Democratic opponent by 10 points in his bid to succeed retiring GOPer Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Constantino, who runs the Sticker Mule company and famously put a huge “Vote for Trump” on the roof of his upstate factory, trails dairy farmer Blake Gendebien 43-39, according to a new News Channel 13/ Survey USA poll.
Constantino, who also funded a $250,000 bronze statue of Trump that he gifted to the president, called the poll an example of “political corruption.”
“They put out a totally fake poll and they do this for one reason only – to help the Democratic Party fundraise,” Constantino said Thursday in a post on X. “We’re talking to lawyers seeing what can be done.”
A tight race in an open seat more than 80 days out from a general election isn’t unusual — but a close race in such deeply conservative territory is telling.
The mostly rural, heavily white district has a 10-point Republican advantage, according to the Cook Political Report. Trump won the district by more than 20 points in 2024.
Stefanik gave up her seat to run for governor, eventually withdrawing after longtime Trump friend Bruce Blakeman entered the race and the president hedged on his endorsement. Stefanik was elected to her sixth term in 2024 by a 62-38 margin when Trump won by just a few points less.
The poll comes after Democrats have seized on a 7-point national lead over Republicans in the “generic” poll average compiled by RealClearPolitics, while running strongly in US Senate races even in Republican leaning-states like Ohio and Texas.
“I think the House is gone. Maybe 10 seats, maybe 20 seats,” Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign told The Post. “You’ve got more races in play than you ever thought would be in play this year.”
Constantino said he has a “real poll which shows me way up,” and his team complained the “scam” poll may have undercounted rural voters, included a candidate who is running as a write-in, and contradicts typical favorability numbers for Gov. Hochul.
The candidate pointed to a similar poll in April that had him trailing in the primary despite getting Trump’s blockbuster endorsement over state Assemblyman Robert Smullen (R-Montgomery) by 10 points. He ended up winning by 19 points.
Democratic nominee Gendebien milked the good news poll and said it confirmed “we don’t want more name-calling and stunts, we want results,” a week after his party’s campaign arm added the race to its list of 58 more competitive “districts in play.”
Constantino still has a powerful ally: Trump, who appeared with Blakeman in Garden City on Friday at an event and called Constantino and other lawmakers on stage.
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