Poll: Cuomo's job approval rating at 64%

ALBANY -- Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has kept high approval ratings among New York voters, including members of the Republican Party and Catholics whose church leaders opposed his successful push last week to legalize same-sex marriage, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Quinnipiac University poll showed the overall approval rating for the way Cuomo is handling the job at 64 percent.

"These are fantastic numbers," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

In a radio interview Monday, Cuomo said that after winning a statewide cap on property tax increases and legalization of same-sex marriage, his next steps include work on economic development and the machinery of government. Two of his other main goals in the 2011 legislative session that ended last week -- a reduced state budget and stronger government ethics oversight -- also passed.

Cuomo's approval ratings in the new poll, matching an April peak overall, were 53 percent among Republicans, 63 percent among union households and 62 percent among Catholics.

It was the highest rating for a New York governor since Republican George Pataki's 66 percent in July 2002.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,317 registered voters from last Monday through Sunday, two days after same-sex marriage was legalized. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer's approval ratings also reached 64 percent overall, while those for New York's other Democratic senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, were 54 percent overall.-- AP