By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Producer/Reporter
Voters say a race between Andrew Cuomo and Gov. David Paterson won’t be racially divisive, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.
Only 14 percent of all voters and 22 percent of black voters surveyed said they thought the election would cause any racial friction.
But the possible candidates’ support was deeply divided across racial lines. White Democrats supported Cuomo by a 66-15 margin while black Democrats supported Paterson by a 42-34 margin.
Cuomo is considered the frontrunner in the upcoming governor’s race, even though he has not officially declared his candidacy.
Last year, President Barack Obama’s office asked Paterson to not run again. Paterson's approval ratings have been extraordinarily low for the past nine months. Cuomo, by comparison, has a 70 percent approval rating across voters surveyed.
Voters polled also said they didn’t mind that Cuomo hadn’t announced his candidacy yet. Seventy-eight percent said they didn’t mind him waiting, while only 15 percent were unhappy with it.
