Q Poll: Paterson Hovers, Giuliani Advances
The good news for Gov. David Paterson in today's Q poll - to the degree there is any - is that he has finally managed to halt the free-fall of his approval rating, losing virtually with no ground with New York voters over the past month.
The bad news: The governor hasn't managed to improve his standing, in spite of all his efforts to do so.
He's hovering at an historic low of 61-28 (compared to 60-28 in an April Q poll) among all voters, including 49-37 among African-American voters - the base he and his supporters have been focused on rallying of late.
White voters disapprove of Paterson 66-24 and Hispanics, 47-43.
By contrast, AG Andrew Cuomo's approval rating remains high (68-12) across the board, and is downright stratospheric among blacks (78-8). Even Republicans like him (55-22).
Cuomo continues to blow Paterson away in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up in 2010, leading him 62-17, which is about the same as last month (61-18).
However, when it comes to a potential general election run against Republican Rudy Giuliani, Cuomo has lost ground to the former mayor.
He now leads Giuliani 47-41, compared to 53-36 in April. The shift was due to independent voters, who were in Cuomo's corner a month ago (49-38), but are now with Giuliani (44-40).
Giuliani continues to handily defeat Paterson, 54-32, leading the governor among whites, Republicans, Hispanics and independents, while Paterson is ahead with blacks and Democrats.
Only 33 percent of voters polled think Paterson will run in 2010; 64 percent say he doesn't deserve to be elected to the office he inherited from Eliot Spitzer, including 46 percent of African-Americans (33 percent feel he should return to the executive mansion).
Forty-eight percent think other Democratic candidates will suffer if the governor makes good on his pledge to be atop the ballot next fall. (Interestingly, black voters are split on this question, 40-39)
