Gov. Kathy Hochul has retained a pollster-strategist for her re-election campaign who served as a secret adviser helping Andrew Cuomo fight sex harassment accusations earlier this year, The Post has learned.
A spokesperson for the Hochul campaign confirmed that Jefrey Pollock and his Global Strategy Group is working on her campaign and has advised her since her first run for Congress in 2011.
Pollock had been the chief pollster for Cuomo’s campaigns which paid the Global Strategy Group, where he serves as president, more than $700,000 for services since 2017, state Board of Elections show.
Pollock’s name pops up in more than 100 internal emails/text messages with other Cuomo staffers and advisers as sexual harassment claims mounted against Cuomo, according to a review of documents recently dumped by state Attorney General Letitia James office as part of her office’s probe into the exiled governor.
Pollock served as part of the Cuomo “rapid response” team, according to the texts.
He dealt with Andrew Cuomo, ex-CNN broadcaster brother Chris and the disgraced ex-governor’s brain trust, including Secretary Melissa DeRosa, communications director Peter Ajemian, senior advisor Rich Azzopardi, political adviser Lis Smith and Cuomo lawyers Beth Garvey and Linda Lacewell.
Pollock participated in an Albany prepping session with the then-governor and other staff before a March 3 press conference to discuss the harassment claims.
“Excellent way to go MDR,” Pollock texted in real time when DeRosa praised the administration’s work to expand women’s rights and urged people to defer judgment on accusations against Cuomo until the AG’s investigation was completed. Sitting next to Cuomo, De Rosa responded to a question about his alleged misdeeds.
“Spin is getting back to work,” Pollock later said, echoing DeRosa.
Pollock offered encouragement in responding to accuser Lindsey Boylan.
“Good start. Keep looking. I’m sure you have more personalized ones,” he said in a text to DeRosa and comms director Ajemian and others.
The pollster-campaign guru also advised, “Lawyers need to overrule or not. The lawyers should have the priority on this Melissa” — regarding a response to media inquiries about accusations leveled against Cuomo by former executive staffer Boylan.
In another exchange, DeRosa asked if it was OK to forward Lindsey Boylan tweets from 2018 praising Cuomo to New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow.
“Not the Hochul one but why not? They are in the public,” Pollock said.
Pollock also said he received inquiries from the reporters with the Associated Press and Washington Post after the Times published a story about former executive staffer Charlotte Bennett claiming Cuomo harassed her.
“Assume I call and talk the political angle? Or want someone else to talk to him first?….I know both of these reporters so happy to do and be careful,” Pollock said on March 1.
Ajemian responds, “Yep. thank you.”
Lindsey Boylan slammed Hochul for retaining Pollock as her campaign pollster-strategist.
“Jefrey Pollock was an integral part of the team that helped smear me and other women who came forward. Someone who has exhibited such poor ethics should not be rewarded by our new governor,” Boylan told The Post.
Advocates for harassment victims also rapped Hochul for including Pollock on her campaign team.
“I don’t believe Gov. Hochul should retain anyone who helped Cuomo try to circumvent accountability,” said Eric Vladimer of the Sexual Harassment Working Group.
“There are a lot of pollsters that Hochul’s team can work with aside from Global Strategy.”
A source tied to the Hochul campaign said the new governor promised to fire anyone who was named in the attorney general’s report and behaved unethically.
“Jef is named but there is no evidence of unethical behavior,” the source said.
The source also said Pollock severed ties with Cuomo after AG James’ investigative report found Cuomo mistreated or harassed a slew of women, triggering his resignation under the threat of impeachment. The three-term Democrat denied wrongdoing as he exited.
Pollock declined requests for comment.
Other former Cuomo staffers who worked at private sector firms lost or quit their jobs after it was revealed they helped the ex-governor smear his accusers — including Alphonso David, the former counsel who headed the Human Right Campaign and Josh Vlasto and Richard Bamberger, who were directors at Kivitt.
Facebook executive Dani Lever also has faced scrutiny for advising Cuomo’s team that it was Ok to “victim shame” Boylan.
The Global Strategy Group website boasts of serving as campaign aides to Hochul, AG James and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Cuomo’s name is conspicuously absent.
