By David Pitt
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
First-term Senator Kirsten Gillibrand can’t afford to take any voters for granted in her bid for election, according to two new statewide polls cited Thursday by the New York Post.
But a third poll has her trouncing her Republican opponent, little known Westchester Congressman Joe DioGuardi.
Pollsters say that the disparate poll results reflect the volatility of electoral politics this year, especially in light of the stunning upsets by Tea Party-supported candidates in the primaries earlier this month.
Gillibrand — who was appointed to the Senate post after Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped down in January to become Secretary of State — currently leads DioGuardi by one point, 45 to 44, among likely voters, according to SurveyUSA.
Another voter sampling, by the venerable Quinnipiac University poll, has Gillibrand, an upstate Democrat, leading by six points, 48 to 42.
The SurveyUSA poll projects that if the election were held today, Gillibrand would win in the five boroughs, but that DioGuardi would triumph upstate.
The potentially worrisome news for Gillibrand from Quinnipac is that if the election were held today, she and DioGuardi would split the pivotal independents’ vote, with DioGuardi getting 42 percent and Gillibrand 41, the Post reported.
The third poll, taken by Siena College, has Gillibrand crushing her opponent by 26 points, 57 to 31. The Siena pollster, Steven Greenberg, asserted that the results were a sign that Dioguardi “has not gotten any momentum or gained any ground” since the primary election.
