Things are going so bad for Paladino, one has to wonder if he's calming down to do damage control for his lucrative buffalo development business.
Not only does the latest poll from the Siena Research Institute show Paladino trailing Andrew Cuomo by 37 points, (63-26 percent, among likely voters) but Two-thirds of voters now have an unfavorable impression of the Republican gubernatorial candidate.
In other words, the more voters get to know Paladino, the more they have a negative reaction. New Yorker’s don’t like the way he been acting in this general election. Two weeks ago, before the controversy over Paladino's Gay comments, a Siena poll gave Cuomo a lead of 24 percentage points. Steve Greenberg is a spokesman for Siena:
“Paladino’s unfavorable rating is not only higher than Gov. Paterson’s rating is today, it’s higher than Paterson’s unfavorable rating has ever been,” Greenberg said. “Additionally, 69 percent of voters also agree with the statement that Paladino is a ‘loose cannon,’ lacking the temperament to be governor. That is up over the last two weeks and up dramatically from four weeks ago when only 41 percent of registered voters agreed, compared to 42 percent who disagreed. And voters are much more in agreement that Cuomo’s experience – largely in government – is more of what New York needs right now than Paladino’s business experience.”
According to the Poll: Cuomo leads by 59 points in New York City
25 points in the downstate suburbs
24 points upstate
This is the largest lead a poll has recorded for Cuomo. A New York Times Poll released Sunday night found Cuomo leading by 35 points.
As for the other Democrats, things generally are looking good.
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli leads Republican challenger Harry Wilson 49-32; a comfortable margin.
Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand dominate their challengers; Gillibrand leads ex-Rep. Joe DioGuardi 60-31 and Schumer leads Jay Townsend 67-28.
The interesting race, as I have predicted is the battle for State Attorney General.
Staten Island Republican District Attorney Dan Donovan is giving Democrat Eric Schneiderman a run for his money.
Scheiderman (a Democratic State Senator) is ahead by seven points. Look at the breakdown.
“Donovan is winning upstate by 12 points, Schneiderman is winning in New York City by more than 30 points and the battleground appears to be the suburbs, where Schneiderman has the narrowest of three-point leads,” Greenberg said. “Each candidate has virtually the same number of people who have a favorable view of them as have an unfavorable view. The difference is that while Schneiderman is unknown to about half of the likely voters, Donovan remains unknown to about two-thirds of voters.”
Republicans have a real shot at Attorney General. The AG race may turn on election day ground operation.