Loudonville, NY – Attorney General Eliot Spitzer easily beats Governor George Pataki (55-32 percent) in a head-to-head match up, and he crushes Secretary of State Randy Daniels (55-14 percent) and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld (57-15 percent), according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll of New York voters released today.

"Governor Pataki’s unfavorable rating is the highest it’s been all year," said Joe Caruso, Director of Polling for the Siena Research Institute (SRI). "And the number of people saying they would prefer to elect someone else rather than re-electing the governor is also the highest Siena has tracked. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Spitzer has widened his lead over Pataki to 23 points, up from 14 points last month.

"William Weld and Randy Daniels are largely unknown by the New York electorate. Four of five voters don’t know either well enough to have an opinion of them and both would lose to Spitzer by more than 40 points," Caruso said.

United States Senator Hillary Clinton’s favorability rating (58-35 percent) and re-elect number (59 percent) remained high this month. Her potential adversaries tested in the poll, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, are still too unknown to New York voters to pose a credible threat.

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"Hillary remains widely popular among New York voters, with nearly three in five having a favorable opinion of her and believing she should be re-elected," Caruso said. "Hillary would beat Jeanine Pirro or William Weld by a two-to-one margin, garnering a comfortable 57 percent of the vote against either."

When presented with the option of reducing only one tax, 39 percent of New York voters selected the local property tax. Twenty-three percent said sales tax, 15 percent chose federal income tax, 12 percent opted for state income tax, and 7 percent identified a different tax to cut.

"While all taxes are burdensome, no tax is more of a burden than the property tax. More than half of downstate suburban voters and 45 percent of voters who own their homes single out the property tax as the tax they most want reduced," Caruso said. "More renters and New York City voters would opt to reduce the sales tax rather than the property tax.

"And nearly one-quarter of voters polled by Siena – a plurality – identified a tax issue as the single most important issue for state government to address in 2005," Caruso said.

For the fourth consecutive month, fewer than one-third of New York voters feel the state is on the ‘right track,’ while nearly half continue to believe the state is headed in the ‘wrong direction.’

"While New York’s political landscape will undoubtedly change over the next year, New York’s Republican Party has its work cut out if they are to find candidates who can mount credible campaigns against Hillary Clinton and keep the Governor’s Mansion in Republican hands," Caruso said.

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