NY voters seek new direction; McCain gains

More than 70 percent of voters in New York state believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a poll by Siena (College) Research Institute.

The margin of those who disagree with the current path the U.S. is on was an overwhelming 72-19 percent margin. There is a 48-33 percent margin among those who said they believe New York state is headed in the wrong direction.

"New Yorkers are very pessimistic about the direction of the country and their pessimism about the direction of the state is growing, reaching its highest level in two years" said Steven Greenberg, SRI poll spokesman.

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Voters aren't sold on new governor, David Paterson, who's favorable/unfavorable rating is 48-18 percent, down from 58-10 percent last month. His job performance rating is 35 percent positive, 34 percent negative, with 32 percent of voters having no opinion, indicating voters still don't know enough about Paterson. Paterson replaced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in March.

On presidential politics, neither Democrat -- Hillary Clinton, the state's junior senator, or Sen. Barack Obama -- would get the support of 50 percent of New York voters against Republican Sen. John McCain. Clinton has a four-point lead and Obama has a five-point lead, according to the Siena poll of registered voters. Both Clinton and Obama were ahead of McCain by seven points in February.

"With a little more than six months until Election Day, New York is looking more 'purple' than 'blue' these days, since neither Clinton or Obama gets 50 percent of the vote against McCain, and both Democrats have small and shrinking leads against the Arizona Republican," said Greenberg.

Clinton's favorable/unfavorable rating is 48-46 percent -- a low mark. Obama's favorable/unfavorable rating is 54-34 percent while McCain's is 54-35 percent.

The SRI survey was conducted April 13-16 by telephone calls to 624 registered New York state voters. It has a margin of error of + 3.9 percentage points.