By FREDRIC U. DICKER
Last updated: 8:27 pm
June 27, 2008
Posted: 4:08 am
June 13, 2008
ALBANY - New York voters say Gov. Paterson was wrong to order the recognition of out-of-state gay marriages by state agencies - even as they agree the state should recognize the same-sex unions, a poll yesterday showed.
The Quinnipiac University poll found that voters, by 53 to 40 percent, said the governor was right to order the recognition of non-New York gay unions. But they believed, by 55 to 30 percent, that the decision should have been made by the Legislature and not the governor.
"Who says people have to be consistent?" said Quinnipiac polling director Maurice Carroll.
"Most New Yorkers think the state Legislature - not Gov. Paterson - should call the shots on gay marriage."
The poll also found 42 percent of voters want New York to legalize gay marriages while 31 percent backed allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
Twenty-one percent said there should be no legal recognition of same-sex relationships.
The survey also found Mayor Bloomberg favored as a candidate for governor in 2010 by 30 percent of New Yorkers, followed by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 26 percent; Paterson, 23 percent; and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, 15 percent.
