1990 New York gubernatorial election

The 1990 New York gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1990 to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York. The Incumbent governor Mario Cuomo won a third term, made him become the first Democratic governor elected three times since Herbert H. Lehman. While the Republican Party and Conservative Party had run the same candidate by taking advantage of New York's fusion voting laws in every gubernatorial election since 1974, in the 1990 election the Republicans nominated Pierre A. Rinfret while the Conservatives nominated Herbert London. In the General Election, Rinfret came in second over London by just 38,334 votes. Had London received more votes, the Conservative Party would have secured Line B on all ballots in New York through the 1994 New York gubernatorial election. Per the New York State Constitution, the Conservative Party would have taken over privileges reserved for the two parties obtaining the most votes in the most recent gubernatorial election, including authority over state and county Boards of Elections. Since this election, the closest a minor party has come to taking over Line B with a candidate of its own was in 2002, when Tom Golisano, running on the Independence Party line, received 14.28% of the vote behind Carl 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%.

1990 New York gubernatorial election

November 6, 1990

Nominee Mario Cuomo Pierre Rinfret Herbert London Party Democratic Republican Conservative Alliance Liberal Running mate Stan Lundine George Yancey Anthony DiPerna Popular vote 2,157,087 865,948 827,614 Percentage 53.2% 21.4% 20.4%

County results

Governor before election Mario Cuomo Democratic Elected Governor Mario Cuomo Democratic

Results

New York gubernatorial election, 1990

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Democratic	Mario Cuomo	2,086,070	51.42%
	Liberal	Mario Cuomo	71,017	1.75%
	Total	Mario Cuomo	2,157,087	53.17%	-11.46%
	Republican	Pierre A. Rinfret	865,948	21.35%	-10.42%
	Conservative	Herbert London	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
	Democratic hold