Poll Shows Clinton, Spitzer Leading Races
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Senator Clinton holds a commanding lead in her 2006 bid for re-election while fellow Democrat Eliot Spitzer has even more strength against his potential Republican opponents in next year’s race for governor, a statewide poll reported yesterday.
The poll, from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, also found that billionaire businessman B. Thomas Golisano, the three-time losing candidate for governor on the Independence Party line, is the top choice among GOP voters for the party’s 2006 gubernatorial nomination even though he is not a Republican – at least not yet.
Mr. Golisano has said he is consider ing a party switch to the GOP. The deadline for doing that is October 14 if he wants to qualify for a possible Republican primary a year from now without getting special permission from state GOP leaders. That permission might be difficult, given Mr. Golisano’s history of attacking Governor Pataki.
While Mr. Pataki is not seeking re-election for a fourth term next year, he still retains considerable influence over party operations and hand-picked the current state GOP chairman, Stephen Minarik. Mr. Golisano spent $75 million of his own money on the 2002 governor’s race, most of it to attack Mr. Pataki, and finished a distant third with 14% of the vote.