By Joseph Spector, Gannett Albany
ALBANY -- After a convincing Democratic primary victory, Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a large lead over his general-election opponents, a new poll Monday showed.
Cuomo led Republican candidate Marc Molinaro 50 percent to 28 percent in the six-person field for governor on Nov. 6, the Siena College poll showed.
And that edge includes Cynthia Nixon getting the support of 10 percent of voters on the Working Families Party line.
Nixon has not said publicly whether she will campaign on the line after losing to Cuomo in the Sept. 13 primary, and the party may end up replacing her on the ballot when it meets later this week.
“With a little more than a month until voters go to the polls, Cuomo has a strong 22- point lead over Molinaro among likely voters," Siena College poll spokesman Steve Greenberg said.
Cuomo, who is seeking a third term, fared best against Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, in New York City, where Cuomo held a 61 percentage-point edge, and in the city's suburbs, where Cuomo was up 24 percentage points.
In the rest of the state, the race was more of a tossup, the poll found.
Cuomo was leading Molinaro by 38 percent to 36 percent in upstate.
“Cuomo is doing a better job holding his base, leading Molinaro among Democrats 77-6 percent, while Molinaro only leads among Republicans 59-21 percent," Greenberg said.
Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe had 2 percent of the vote, the poll said, while Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and Serve America Movement candidate Stephanie Miner each had 1 percent.
In the other statewide races, Democrats also had leads, the poll said.
Republicans are looking for their first statewide victory since 2002 in a state with twice as many enrolled Democrats as Republicans.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand held a 61 percent to 29 percent lead over Republican opponent Chele Farley.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli led Republican Jonathan Trichter 58 percent to 26 percent.
The closest race found by Siena was the open seat for attorney general, which was vacated in May by Eric Schneiderman, who resigned amid accusations he abused women.
Democratic candidate Letitia James, the New York City public advocate, was ahead of Republican Keith Wofford, a Manhattan attorney, by 50 percent to 36 percent.
James won a four-candidate Democratic primary last month.
The Siena poll was conducted Sept. 20-27 to 701 likely New York voters. It has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.