Hillary Clinton tops prospective 2016 candidates in poll

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton leads among prospective 2016 presidential candidates in a poll out yesterday that shows the Democrat besting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and two other Republicans.

Christie holds the strongest position among his party's potential White House hopefuls. He's ahead when pitted against two other Democrats mentioned as White House contenders, Vice President Joe Biden and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, according to the survey of U.S. voters by Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University.

"Clinton would start a 2016 presidential campaign with enormous advantages," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute. "She obviously is by far the best known, and her more than 20 years in the public spotlight allows her to create a very favorable impression on the American people.Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York and a former first lady, lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to Obama, who was elected president and named her secretary of state. She left the State Department this year and was succeeded by John Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator and the unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

Clinton, 65, hasn't discussed plans to seek public office again, though supporters have formed a super political action committee to back a possible presidential campaign.

The Quinnipiac poll showed Clinton leading Christie, 45 percent to 37 percent; Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 50 percent to 34 percent; and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, his party's 2012 vice-presidential nominee, 50 percent to 38 percent.

Christie, who is running for re-election as governor in November, finishes ahead of Biden, 43 percent to 40 percent, and Cuomo, 45 percent to 28 percent.

The vice president leads both Rubio, 45 percent to 38 percent, and Ryan, 45 percent to 42 percent. Cuomo trails Ryan, 42 percent to 37 percent, and is even with Rubio at 37 percent.

Christie, 50, "runs best of the three Republicans tested and would defeat two of the top Democrats" and "obviously is doing better than the Democrats' rising star [Cuomo]," Brown said.

The survey of 1,944 registered voters was conducted from Feb. 27 to March 4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.