Spitzer Beats All But Giuliani, Poll on N.Y. Gubernatorial Race Finds

If he decided to run for New York State Governor next year, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani would top State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer 49 – 42 percent, the only one of several high visibility Republican names to top the likely Democratic candidate, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

Spitzer has gained ground since trailing Giuliani 59 – 34 percent in an April 14, 2004 poll by the independent Quinnipiac University.

In other hypothetical matchups:

* Spitzer beating New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg 51 – 34 percent, with a 50 – 38 percent lead among New York City voters;

* Spitzer over former Independence Party candidate Thomas Golisano 58 – 22 percent;

* Spitzer topping former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld 60 – 16 percent;

* Spitzer over Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro 59 – 21 percent.

Sen. Hillary Clinton gets a 63 – 29 percent approval rating from New York State voters, and dominates two potential Republican challengers in next year’s reelection race, 63 – 29 percent over Pirro and 64 – 26 percent over Edward Cox.

Sen. Charles Schumer has a 63 – 21 percent approval rating.

Gov. George Pataki, who recently announced he would not run for reelection and has been rumored to be interetsed in running for President, gets a 49 – 38 percent approval rating, his best in a year and up from a negative 36 – 47 percent approval rating in a May 4 Quinnipiac University poll.

Voters say 55 – 32 percent that his three terms as Governor have been a success.

From July 27 – August 1, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,498 New York State registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.

Topics New York