News

Poll shows New Yorkers think highly of Hillary

Paterson’s ‘likeability’ falling

By Tom Wanamaker

ALBANY — New Yorkers think Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would perform well as secretary of state, while their opinion of Gov. David A. Paterson has fallen slightly.

In a poll released recently by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, 72 percent of those surveyed said that the Democratic senator would make an “excellent” or “good” secretary of state.

If President-elect Barack Obama offers Clinton the job, 55 percent said they want her to accept the nation’s top diplomatic post, while 31 percent want her to continue serving as New York’s junior senator.

Paterson’s star is not shining quite as brightly as it did last month, the poll reported. Slightly more than half of those surveyed — 51 percent — rated his job performance as “excellent” (nine percent) or “good” (42 percent), down from 57 percent in October.

Among upstate New Yorkers, the governor got excellent marks from nine percent of those polled, while 44 percent said “good,” 26 percent said “fair,” eight percent said “poor” and 13 percent were not sure.

This survey was conducted on Nov. 18 via phone calls to 613 registered voters throughout New York, in proportion to the voter registration in each of the state’s counties and adjusted for turnout in statewide elections. The margin of error is plus-or-minus four percent.

Reader Comments

Submit a Comment