Gov. Kathy Hochul leads state Attorney General Letitia James by 14 percentage points in a hypothetical Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to a poll released Monday.
Hochul, who was sworn in as the state’s chief executive in August, tops the field of potential candidates with the support of 36 percent of likely primary voters.
James comes in second with 22 percent while Hochul’s predecessor, disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is in third with 15 percent, according to the Data for Progress survey. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who announced his bid last week, comes in fourth with 7 percent support and Long Island Congressman Thomas Suozzi ranks fifth with 6 percent.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is a distant sixth, with 3 percent support, while 11 percent of likely primary voters say they are not sure of their choice.
When Cuomo — who resigned earlier this year amid a sexual harassment scandal — is removed from the list of potential candidates, Hochul reaches 39 percent support, a gain of three points, while James picks up two points worth of support to move to 24 percent.
“Not sure” comes in third place with 16 percent, while Williams moves to 9 percent and Suozzi and de Blasio check in at 7 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Suozzi and de Blasio have not formally entered the race.
In a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, the poll finds Hochul leads James by 11 percentage points — 46 percent to 35 percent — among likely voters, with 19 percent not sure of their choice.
In two other surveyed head-to-head matchups, the governor enjoys a 31-point advantage over Williams (55 percent to 24 percent with 21 percent undecided), and a whopping 37-point edge over Cuomo (64 percent to 27 percent with 9 percent undecided).
Both Hochul and James have a 60 percent favorability rating among those surveyed, though the governor has a slightly higher net favorability of plus-40 percentage points, compared to plus-37 for the AG.
Williams has the next-highest net favorability rating at 28 percentage points (42 percent approval, 14 percent disapproval, 44 percent don’t know enough to say). Suozzi has a net approval rating of 11 percentage points — though 65 percent of Empire State voters say they don’t know enough about the congressman to judge him one way or another.
Both de Blasio and Cuomo have negative net approval ratings, with 60 percent of likely voters holding an unfavorable opinion of Hizzoner compared to 34 percent with a favorable opinion for a differential of minus-26 percentage points. In Cuomo’s case, the favorable/unfavorable split is 46 percent to 52 percent for a net approval of minus-6 percentage points.
In downballot races, activist Zephyr Teachout leads nine Democratic candidates for attorney general — including US Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney and Kathleen Rice — with support of 15 percent of likely voters. However, the poll finds that nearly half of it respondents (48 percent) are undecided about their vote.
In the race for state comptroller, incumbent Tom DiNapoli (32 percent) and outgoing NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer (31 percent) are locked in a virtual dead heat, with 37 percent of likely voters undecided.
The poll surveyed 528 likely Democratic primary voters between Nov. 16 – 17 and has a margin of effort of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.