Lazio Beats Paterson by 7 Points In Latest Poll
Tags: David Paterson, Rick Lazio, Siena Poll
A new Siena poll shows that in a gubernatorial race between Rick Lazio and Governor David Paterson, the only candidates who have officially declared their candidacies, Rick Lazio is ahead seven points.
This is good news for Rick Lazio, although the poll still show he has work to do.
Paterson is now lagging behind his erstwhile defender, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio, by seven points. The hypothetical head-to-head match-up here was dead even (42-42) in January. Cuomo continues to wipe the floor with Lazio, 63-26, compared to 66-24 last month.
Siena pollster Steve Greenberg manages to find one piece of “good news” for the beleaguered governor: Two-thirds of voters polled say they didn’t believe the rumors that a supposed bombshell Times story would force Paterson to resign.
Other than that, the outlook for Paterson is pretty bleak.
As for Cuomo, voters are starting to get a little tired of his Rose Garden routine. They’re split on whether he should declare his political intentions, 43-41, down from 49-37 in January.
Voters aren’t buying the whole “it takes an outsider to clean up the Capitol” line that Lazio is selling. Fifty-three percent say they’d prefer someone with experience on Planet Albany in the governor’s office.
Nevertheless, Lazio’s numbers are heading in the right direction. Even Cuomo’s numbers are dropping, albeit at a smaller rate.
Of course, the big question remains, what is Cuomo going to do? conventional wisdom says he’ll run. Naturally one has to ask why hasn’t he declared yet. I think the answer is that Cuomo knows that once he enters the race his numbers will drop even faster. As long as he is not a candidate, he doesn’t have to campaign, doesn’t have to talk issues… he’s just a contender who isn’t contending, and thus doesn’t have to throw or take any punches. His numbers are high enough that means he’s fairly safe to do that, but I don’t think he can keep it up much longer.
Lazio, as the sole GOP challenger, is free to travel the state and build up coalitions while most are looking at Paterson, how’s he’s doing as governor, and at Cuomo, and whether he’s jumping in or not. Pressure is on Cuomo to jump in the pool or get off the diving board. Without knowing for sure what his intentions are these polls only tell us so much.
Matt Margolis is co-author (with Mark Noonan) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at Blogs For Victory. Follow Matt on Twitter.