Politics on the Hudson

   When asked by a reporter this afternoon whether he could rule out a gubernatorial primary against Gov. David Paterson next year, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was “focused on being the attorney general of the state of New York.”

   “As much as I can stay away from the politics, that’s what I seek to do. Next year will be a political year and we’ll deal with it then,” he said.

   Cuomo, a Democrat, repeated much the same words in response to a few more questions about his political intentions. He said he works to stay away from the politics “because my job, I can do my job better when I can work on both sides of the aisle. When I can work with Democrats, when I can work with Republicans when I’m not getting involved in political skirmishes.”

   Cuomo’s term is up next year, as is that of the governor’s. Paterson’s popularity has dipped sharply in recent months and Cuomo is considered by many to be a potential contender. A Siena College poll released last week found that 2 percent of New Yorkers think Paterson is doing an excellent job, 20 percent said he was doing a good job, 41 percent rated his performance as fair and 36 percent said it was poor.

   In a potential match-up between Paterson and Cuomo, Cuomo leads the governor by 65 percent to 23 percent, the poll found. Thirty-one percent of voters surveyed said they’d prefer Cuomo to run again for attorney general, but 45 percent said he should run for governor. Cuomo has a 63 percent to 21 percent favorability rating.

   Cuomo said the only political plan he has at this time is to run for re-election as attorney general. He joked that he could decide to do something else altogether, like retiring or playing baseball.