Despite Efforts, Paterson Still Struggling With Voters: Poll
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- November
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Despite a media blitz and a message of fiscal austerity, Gov. David Paterson’s standing with New York voters inched up just slightly in recent weeks, a Siena College poll today found.
The Democratic governor’s favorability rating was 33 percent, up from 27 percent in a Siena poll a month ago.
That was about the only good news in the poll for Paterson, who has vowed to run for a full four-year term next year despite the record-low poll numbers. He started running campaign ads last week and has sought to show strong leadership amid the state’s financial woes.
But his job performance rating was 21 percent positive, virtually unchanged from last month, and the poll found he would lose in hypothetical matchups against other leading Democrats or Republicans.
“While the governor’s favorability rating saw slight improvement, no other measure of his electability increased,” said Steven Greenberg, a poll spokesman.
Paterson trailed Attorney General Andrew Cuomo by nearly 60 percentage points, 75 percent to 16 percent, in a potential Democratic primary, if Cuomo decides to run for the post.
Paterson also would lose to former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani by more than 20 percentage points, and for the first time in a Siena poll trailed former Rep. Rick Lazio by three percentage points, 42 percent to 39 percent. Giuliani has not indicated whether he will run for governor, while Lazio is actively seeking the GOP nomination.
The poll also looked at the statewide viability of leaders across the state and found that most had little name recognition outside their home regions.
Of 17 potential Democratic candidates for statewide office, more than 50 percent of voters had no opinion of 13 of them. For example, 84 percent of voters had no opinion of Sen. Jeffrey Klein, D-Bronx, and 83 percent had no opinion of Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Westchester County. The two are considered potential attorney general candidates next year.
On the Republican side, 88 percent of voters had no opinion of Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, while 87 percent had no opinion of Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef, who was the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006.
The poll was conducted Nov. 8 through 12, 2009 to 800 New York registered voters. It has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
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on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 9:37 am by Joseph Spector.
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