ALBANY – Just how muddled the New York governor’s race is for Republicans with billionaire Thomas Golisano out of the picture became more obvious yesterday as a statewide poll showed 50% of GOP voters are uncertain who should be their candidate this year.

The poll, from Marist College’s Institute for Public Opinion, also found the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, the only announced Democratic candidate for governor, clobbering the remaining top Republican contenders – the former Massachusetts governor, Bill Weld, and the former state Assembly minority leader, John Faso – by better than 3-1 margins.

The poll was conducted before Mr. Golisano, a three-time losing candidate for governor on the Independence Party line, announced Tuesday he would not run a fourth time. He switched to the GOP in October with an eye toward seeking his new party’s gubernatorial nomination.

The governor’s job is open because George Pataki, a Republican, is eyeing a 2008 run for the White House despite sagging poll numbers at home, announced in July that he would not seek a fourth term.

Despite their control of the governor’s office and the New York City mayoralty, where Michael Bloomberg rules, New York’s GOP appears to be reeling as it heads toward the 2006 statewide elections.

The party’s first choice to challenge Senator Clinton’s re-election bid, Jeanine Pirro, quit that race in December after a series of campaign gaffes and trouble raising money. The GOP also doesn’t have a prospective candidate to take on the Democratic state comptroller, Alan Hevesi.

“It’s early. It’s February 1. The election is in November,” the state GOP chairman, Stephen Minarik, said.

The Marist poll found Mr. Golisano far ahead of his former potential rivals for the GOP nomination with 33% support from Republican voters. Mr. Weld was at 8% and Mr. Faso at 4% in the poll, with half the GOP voters undecided about who to support.