Politics on the Hudson

   New Marist Poll results released today show that more people are familiar with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, an upstate Democrat, and approve of her work (26 percent rating her favorably, compared to 24 percent in July, and 9 percent saying she is performing poorly, down from 13 percent in July). But she would lose a hypothetical match-up with former Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, for her seat—48 percent to 44 percent, according to the survey. She had an edge of 46 percent to 42 percent in July.

   Meanwhile, approval of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, also a Democrat, remains high, the poll found. Fifty-eight percent of voters think he’s doing an excellent or good job and 13 percent think he’s performing poorly. In July, 54 percent of the electorate thought he was doing an excellent or good job.

   Voters would not welcome a reappearance of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer on the scene, poll results show. Sixty-nine percent of voters said they don’t want him to run for office next year, including 62 percent of Democrats—his own party—77 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of voters who are not enrolled in a political party. Spitzer resigned in disgrace after it became know in March 2008 that he had been a customer of a high-priced prostitution ring.

   Even though Paterson, who replaced Spitzer, received 20 percent approval ratings in the Marist Poll, he would beat out Spitzer in a hypothetical contest, the survey found. Sixty percent of voters said they would back Paterson and 31 percent said they would opt for Spitzer.

   Marist surveyed 805 registered voters between Sept. 8 and Sept. 10.