Paterson Now Trails Cuomo by More Than 4:1 in New Poll

Governor Paterson's prospects at getting elected next year continue to dwindle as the latest poll shows Andrew Cuomo running away with a head-to-head match-up in a landslide. The newest Quinnipiac poll shows Cuomo trouncing the governor by a margin of 61-15% among registered Democrats. Paterson may have hoped to see some gains after a month which he took a hard-line stance against the chaos in the state senate and appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor despite objections to the move's legality. But his poll numbers continue to move the same direction they have throughout all of '09, with only 26% of New Yorkers saying they have a favorable view of the governor. As for Cuomo, he extended his lead in a hypothetical race against Rudy Giuliani to 48-39%—Giuliani has already began showing signs of shying away from a run, something that seems even less likely if Paterson is pushed aside. The governor continues to watch even the black vote slip away from him—with Cuomo now showing a 20 point lead among African-Americans. One prominent Democrat told the News, "I don't know how (Paterson) can run."