Cuomo
HAMDEN, Conn. (Legal Newsline) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's popularity continues to rise while Gov. David Paterson's is at an all-time low, a poll released by Quinnipiac University Monday shows.
Cuomo would defeat Paterson in next year's Democratic gubernatorial primary 61 percent to 18, the poll says. Fifty-three percent of voters also said Paterson should announce now that he won't run for election.
Last month, Cuomo said he had no intention of challenging Paterson and that he was content with his current job, which has brought him a measure of national notoriety for his role in the recent executive bonus controversies at Bank of America and American International Group.
Voters in the poll disapproved of the job Paterson is doing by a 60-28 margin. If Cuomo took on Paterson in the primary and won, voters said they would vote him governor over Republican Rudolph Giuliani 53-36.
"There's nothing good for Paterson in this poll," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute.
"Cuomo, who has minded his manners during Paterson's collapse, saying nothing about the Governor, trounces Paterson in a theoretical matchup. Giuliani whomps Paterson, too.
"This poll has nothing but good news for Cuomo. His job approval is stratospheric, duplicating his 76 percent approval in February. And in election matchups, he leads Paterson more than 3-1 and shows he's the Democrat who can beat Giuliani."
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,528 New York registered voters, 664 of them Democrats, from April 1-5. The poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at john@legalnewsline.com.