ALBANY – Governor Pataki may not be running for a fourth term next year, but the results of a new poll suggest that state Republicans are increasingly supportive of him as a candidate.

Mr. Pataki has prompted some observers to write him off in next year’s race, following a thinly veiled testing of the presidential waters in Iowa last weekend and weak fund-raising results for his statewide campaign committee in recent months.

The governor has also trailed the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor in 2006,the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, by double digits in statewide polls for months. A new poll released yesterday by the Siena Research Institute confirmed Mr. Spitzer’s solid lead.

But the poll, which put Mr. Spitzer’s current lead over Mr. Pataki at 49% to 37%, shows the governor is gaining ground even as his favorability numbers rise. The poll said 52% of respondents had a favorable view of the governor, the highest percentage in six months.

“Despite the fact that his re-elect number continues to be extremely low,” the poll’s director, Joe Caruso, said, “there’s no denying that the governor’s New York political future is stronger now than it’s been all year.”

Mr. Pataki, who as recently as May trailed Mr. Spitzer in the Siena poll by 23 percentage points, has said that he will make a decision on whether to run for a record fourth four-year term in late September. The governor’s improvement is largely the result of increased support from Republicans, whose support for Mr. Pataki rose by 6 percentage points since last month’s poll. Sixty-four percent of Republican respondents said they have a favorable view of the incumbent governor.

Mr. Pataki may have also benefited from the rejection by legislative leaders of the West Side stadium, a project he supported. Respondents rated the stadium’s rejection as one of the highlights of the legislative session that ended last month. The governor also appears to have benefited from the first on-time budget since 1984, though Democrats were less impressed with the feat than Republicans. Despite enthusiasm over an on-time budget, only 4% of respondents gave the Legislature an A grade for the session.

Looking ahead to the race for U.S. Senate next year, Senator Clinton maintained the same 60% favorability rating she received in last month’s Siena poll. That figure has barely budged in the past six months. Jeanine Pirro, who has not said whether she will run against Mrs. Clinton next year or for attorney general, would lose the Senate race by nearly 30 points, the poll said. The Siena poll of 620 registered voters was conducted July 12 to 18. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9%.