Cuomo Continues Public Approval Dominance Over Kennedy

While Governor David Paterson keeps his thoughts about the Senate seat mostly to himself (which is not too cool) the public has seemed to have made up their mind on who they want to be their next Senator. Many names have been mentioned, but the two that are the strongest are the two that hail from political dynasties. At first Caroline Kennedy swept people off their feet. More than a month later we have gotten to know more about her (other than the Camelot stuff) and an actual elected official, Andrew Cuomo has been the frontrunner so far this year.

And it appears he continues to be as such:

New York State voters have cooled on Caroline Kennedy and more voters now prefer State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo 31 - 24 percent for Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney gets 6 percent, with 5 percent for U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, 2 percent for U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, 18 percent for someone else and 14 percent undecided.

Still, voters say 38 - 33 percent that Gov. David Paterson will appoint Ms. Kennedy to the U.S. Senate.

Cuomo leads Kennedy 31 - 20 percent among upstate voters and 36 - 22 percent in the suburbs, while Kennedy gets 31 percent of New York City voters to Cuomo's 29 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Men back Cuomo 32 - 23 percent while women back him 31 - 25 percent.

New York State voters say 48 - 37 percent that Kennedy is not qualified to be a U.S. Senator and 40 - 37 percent that she would not be a good Senator. Democrats say 47 - 35 percent that she is qualified, while Republicans say 65 - 24 percent that she is not qualified. Independent voters say 51 - 34 percent that she is not qualified.

Quinnipiac guru Maurice Carroll thinks it is due to her "stumbling start" when she spent time being interviewed by various newspapers. She was particularly nasty with some publications and she was rightly put down because of that. Of course, it ultimately comes down to who Paterson decides, but I sure hope that he is paying attention to these polls.