Quinnipiac poll: Cuomo up big over Nixon, but lead appears to be shrinking

Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo maintains a wide lead over challenger Cynthia Nixon, six weeks after Nixon announced she was challenging the two-time incumbent. That's according to a new Quinnipiac University poll, released Wednesday.

The poll found Cuomo has a 22 point lead among registered Democratic voters (Cuomo 50 percent, Nixon 28 percent).

Democratic women back Gov. Cuomo 49 to 24 percent, with 27 percent undecided.

The poll of 1,076 New York state voters - 473 of them Democrats - was conducted April 26 to May 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

"Actress Cynthia Nixon is a nuisance to Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he seeks a third term, but at this stage she is not running strong enough to make either the Democratic Primary or General Election challenge successful," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 

This follows polling done in March by Siena College, which showed Cuomo with a 47 point lead (Cuomo 66, Nixon 19) among registered Democrats. That was before Nixon formally declared her candidacy.

Another Siena poll, done in mid-April after Nixon announced she was running, found Nixon had cut the deficit to 31 points (Cuomo 58, Nixon 27).

Nixon's team hailed the news with a fundraising e-mail containing results of the poll.

"This is amazing news for our campaign, and a true testament to the power of our grassroots movement," read the e-mail.

But the Cuomo campaign, points to the fact that 60 percent of those surveyed said they preferred a governor with political experience, as opposed to the 29 percent who said they would rather someone new to politics.

You can read the full results of the poll here.