After a month on his heels—reeling from stories claiming his administration hid the total number of nursing home residents killed by the coronavirus, then from accusations of sexual harassment, the most recent of which came on Tuesday—Cuomo is launching his counteroffensive. He will fight on two main, interconnected fronts. The first is inside Albany, where the leaders of the two houses of the state legislature have called on Cuomo to resign. Here the governor retains considerable power. He can reward or punish legislators during the current state budget negotiations, which are supposed to conclude by April 1. Cuomo has also pointed out, none too subtly, that legislators who are criticizing him sure wouldn’t like it much if ethical allegations against them were aired publicly. (The governor has apologized to Charlotte Bennett, one of his accusers, if he made her uncomfortable, and denied touching anyone inappropriately.)

The second theater of operations is public opinion. Cuomo insiders are provisionally encouraged by polling done in the immediate aftermath of former aide Bennett’s allegations that the governor was trying to sleep with her. Quinnipiac University and Emerson College polls showed drops in Cuomo’s favorability rating—but not off the table. “We’ll see over time, but this doesn’t suggest he’s bleeding out,” one Democratic strategist says. In the Emerson poll, men (44% disapproval) appear to be angrier at the governor than women (25%), though the poll’s methodology has been questioned. “It was bizarre to me to see it in focus groups at the time of the Supreme Court hearings,” the strategist says, “but older women were some of the people most turned off by the attacks on Brett Kavanaugh. With Cuomo, I think there will be a big generational divide.”