Howard Dean moved to at least a 2-1 lead over his chief rivals for the Democratic nomination for president while President Bush’s popularity rebounded in the heavily Democratic state, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Dean drew 26 percent of Democratic voters surveyed by the Marist College’s Institute for Public Opinion. Sen. Joe Lieberman had 12 percent and Wesley Clark 10 percent. None of the other contenders were in double digits, and 26 percent of those surveyed said they were undecided.
Among all registered New York voters surveyed, 34 percent said they would definitely vote for Bush in November while 36 percent said they would definitely vote against him. Thirty percent were undecided.
In September, a similar survey found 32 percent of voters planned to vote for Bush and 48 percent planned to vote against him.
The telephone poll of 617 registered voters was conducted Jan. 6-7 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll of 544 Democrats has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
