According to these series of polls published by Quinnipiac, John McCain was polling better than George W. Bush against Al Gore and Bill Bradley in the New York State, a Democratic stronghold. In the last Quinnipiac poll released in New York on March 1 2000 before McCain dropped out of the Republican presidential primary race, Bush trails Gore with 36 % of the voting intentions and 53 % for Gore while McCain trails Gore by only one percentage point (44 % for Gore and 43 % for McCain) and even tops Bill Bradley with 44 % of the voting intentions over Bradley's 39 %.
So the question is due to his maverick and moderate faith and his better ability to attract independent voters than Bush, could John McCain have won the New York State or just made it ompetitive if he won the Republican nomination in 2000?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_New_York,_2000#Polling_2
Poll
