A former top official in the New York Democratic Party is kicking off an independent run for governor.

Stephanie Miner, an ex-mayor of Syracuse, made her announcement in an interview with The New York Times.

Polls show Gov. Andrew Cuomo with comfortable leads over actress Cynthia Nixon in the Democratic primary and Republican Dutchess County executive Marcus J. Molinaro in a general election matchup.

Miner told WNYC back in March that Nixon's entry into the race was a positive. "I think we in New York have suffered for not having enough vibrant public policy and instead having decisions made behind closed doors by three men in a room," she said.

Though Miner once served as Cuomo's hand-picked co-chair of the state Democratic party, she has a track record of breaking with the governor. In a 2013 editorial for The New York Times, she criticized him for under-funding upstate cities.

“People are fleeing upstate because of a lack of opportunity and they’re fleeing downstate because of a lack of affordability,” Ms. Miner told The Times in the interview published Monday.

Recently, Miner has been spending part of her time in New York City, teaching a course in municipal finance at New York University.

Cuomo may now face a four-way race in November. Nixon has already won the nomination of the Working Families Party, meaning she could stay on the ballot in the general election.