Poll: Kerry stakes big lead in New York

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Sen. John Kerry has moved out to a commanding lead among likely voters for New York's March 2 Democratic presidential primary, a statewide independent poll reported Thursday.

The poll, from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, also found great displeasure with President Bush among Democratic voters in New York. While 42 percent said they were dissatisfied with him, another 35 percent said they were actually "angry" at the Republican president. Fourteen percent of Democrats said they were satisfied with Bush and 6 percent said they admired him.

The Quinnipiac poll reported that Kerry was favored by 48 percent of likely Democratic voters. Trailing the senator from Massachusetts were former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean at 10 percent; Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina at 7 percent; Al Sharpton of New York at 4 percent; and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio at 3 percent. Former Gen. Wesley Clark, who pulled out of the race Wednesday, was at 6 percent in the poll.


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"It's beginning to look like `Super Tuesday' March 2 ... will be super for Senator Kerry," said Maurice Carroll, director of the polling institute. Noting that Kerry beats Sharpton among black Democrats, 44 percent to 15 percent, Carroll said Sharpton, "the only New Yorker in the pack, doesn't have much oomph as a native son."

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The poll comes one day after several prominent New York Democrats threw their weight behind Kerry, including two of the state's leading black politicians, Rep. Charles Rangel and former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. Rangel had been one of Clark's top supporters while McCall, the Democrats' unsuccessful candidate for governor in 2002, had been neutral in the presidential race.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--democrats-newyork0212feb12,0,1712236.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire