Poll: Spitzer over Suozzi even in his home county

[cal04]

A week after Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi declared his campaign for governor, even Democrats in his home county strongly prefer Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for the job, a Newsday/NY1 News poll has found.,
Across the state, 82 percent of voters say they don't know enough about Suozzi to offer an opinion of him. Suozzi would lose 51 percent to 29 percent in Nassau alone, despite his resounding re-election last November, and 60 percent to 14 percent in Suffolk. In Suffolk County, 58 percent said they need more information about him.

That illustrates the rough road the county executive faces and the many millions of dollars he'll likely have to spend to compete in the September primary, experts say. "The biggest problem here is name recognition but that can't be a problem in Nassau where they know him," said Norman Adler, a Manhattan political consultant. "If his performance in his base is close to pitiful, it robs him of the opportunity to say, 'When the rest of the state gets to know me they'll like me.'"

The poll, conducted by Blum & Weprin, shows Spitzer with a commanding lead over any challenger, Republican or Democrat, at this early stage, with favorable ratings in his current job of 69 percent after seven years prosecuting corruption on Wall Street and in other sectors. Democrats hope to take state government back as Republican Gov. George Pataki departs and mulls a presidential bid with 50 percent approval ratings, according to the poll. Pataki's disapproval rating was 40 percent.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stgov0307,0,5232497.story?coll=ny-homepage-bigpix2005

[snowbear]

1. Awesome! ..Everytime I hear that name "Souzzi"...

I'm going to think of the post someone made here titled "Wake Up Little Souzzi!"

[Infomaniac]

2. Spitzer is very popular among NYers...

except for the white collar types he's indicted or CEOs of companies he's caught with robbing millions from consumers. I don't see Suozzi as having a prayer.

[dolstein]

4. That doesn't mean he'll be a good governor

Spitzer has been great when it comes to taking on Wall Street, but he hasn't shown much stomach for taking on Albany. Do you live in New York? I do, and the situation in Albany is a disgrace. All the Democrats in the assembly care about is hanging on to power. The same goes for the Republicans who control the senate.

[dolstein]

3. I like Suozzi

The political leadership in Albany is so badly ossified that it's going to take a real outsider to fix the problem. As aggressive as Sptizer has been as attorney general, he's still very much a part of the Democratic establishment, as I don't think he's going to be willing to taken on the Democrats in the state assembly, who are just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans in the state senate. Both sides are so determined to protect their own turf that the people's business just isn't getting done.

[Ignacio Upton]

5. The NYS primary process is also symbolic of that

The problem with NYS primaries is that they are almost always bloody and divisive. Even with 9/11 we still could have won the Mayor's race in NYC had there not have been a divisive primary between Green and Ferrer. Andrew Cuomo running against Carl McCall also hurt us, and Cuomo ended up DROPPING OUT right before the primary, wasting money that could have been used against Pataki, who had to move to the left in order to keep his office. Spitzer has done a good job as Attorney General, and I trust him to do well as Governor. Suozzi is a political opportunist who is running now because he won't get another chance to run if Spitzer wins and is Governor for three terms a la Cuomo and Pataki. Suozzi's donations from anti-Spitzer partisan Kenneth Langone and his refusal to repudiate him give me a good reason not to vote for him in the primary, and I might just skip to the NY-19 Congressional race and Hillary's re-election on the ballot if the race is Suozzi vs. Weld (they really are about the same idealogically and they're both opportunists running for ego). If it is Suozzi vs. Faso then I will vote for him because Faso is more in line with the national GOP.