Politics on the Hudson

A Siena Research Institute poll released today contains booth good and bad news for Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The poll shows that about 70 percent of New Yorkers want Spitzer to testify under oath about the so-called troopergate controversy. It also indicates that 51 percent of voters believe Spitzer was aware of what his aides efforts to smear Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, despite the governor’s claims to the contrary.

“All voters – including Democrats – overwhelmingly believe that Spitzer has not been honest with the public about what he knows, that he needs to be more forthright and that he knew what his aides were doing,â€? said Steven Greenberg, Siena New York Poll spokesman. “And by a margin of 70-19 percent, voters want the Governor to publicly testify under oath about everything he knows about troopergate. ”

Still, the governor maintains a better than two-to-one favorable rating and would defeat Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in a hypothetical gubernatorial primary 47-24 percent.