Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) has a double-digit lead on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) among registered New York voters in a hypothetical 2010 Senate match-up, according to a Marist poll conducted Nov. 12, 16 and 17.

Giuliani was all over the headlines in New York on Thursday after associates leaked word he would not run for governor, as many had expected. Giuliani is reportedly more interested in the Senate race, and with good reason, according to the Marist results. He trumps Gillibrand, the freshman senator appointed in January, with a majority of voters, 54 to 40 percent. The margin of error was 3.5 percent.

Giuliani leads both among Republicans -- 84 to 12 percent -- and independents -- 55 to 41 percent. He even takes a third of Democratic voters, trailing Gillibrand 59 to 33 percent.

The job approval ratings for President Barack Obama have inarguably declined since his Jan. 20 inauguration, as the soaring promises of change on which he was elected last November meet the rough-and-tumble of the legislative and political processes.

But Obama's problem in pressing his policy agenda has not been a serious erosion in his base of supporters, according to the latest survey conducted by the polling unit at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

It is, rather, a sharp increase in the numbers of those voters who now say they disapprove of how Obama is handling his responsibilities. And the poll suggests that one of the president's most pressing challenges is to win back the support of independent voters, who began the year predisposed to Obama by a wide margin but are now split roughly down the middle.

The Marist poll of 913 registered voters -- conducted Oct. 7, 8 and 12 and carrying a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points -- showed 53 percent of all respondents approved of Obama's job performance. That is down just a tad from 55 percent in the unit's August national poll and from 56 percent in a poll published April 8.

But the disapproval rate has jumped to 41 percent, from 30 percent in that April 8 poll and from 35 percent in August.

As Republican Rick Lazio prepares to officially enter New York's 2010 campaign for governor next Monday, members of his own party are split on whether they think he should run, according to a poll conducted Sept. 8 through 10 by the Marist Institute of Public Opinion.

Forty-three percent of registered Republican voters said they want Lazio to run, but another 43 percent said they don't. Among all voters regardless of party, just 30 percent thought Lazio should run for the seat held by politically struggling interim Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson.

In contrast, 81 percent of Republicans, and 58 percent of voters overall, said they want former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to run for governor. Giuliani, who bid unsuccessfully for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, is still mulling a campaign.

As the debate over health care overhaul rages on, a new Marist poll shows Americans believe President Obama needs to do more to convince them it is the right course of action.

The poll, conducted Aug. 3-6, showed 45 percent of registered U.S. voters say they disapprove of how Obama is handling health care while 43 percent approve. Along party lines, 74 percent of Democrats approvie of the way Obama is dealing with the issue and 76 percent of Republicans disapprove.

A majority of independents, 52 percent, are unhappy with the way Obama is addressing the health care situation.

Although 65 percent of U.S. residents, including 67 percent of registered voters nationwide, think the nation’s health care system needs major change, many are not optimistic about the impact of health care overhaul.

While Democrats have enjoyed two election cycles where they made huge strides in building their congressional majorities, we've been struck by the series of polls in the last few weeks that show a far grimmer outlook for their gubernatorial colleagues as we approach 2010.

Here's a summary of the last five governor polls we've posted here in Poll Tracker:

• New Hampshire: Three-term Democratic Gov. John Lynch was re-elected by landslides in his last two races and has enjoyed high approval ratings since his first term as New Hampshire governor, but economic and budget challenges have taken some of the luster off his current standing, according to a University of New Hampshire Granite State poll conducted June 24 - July 1.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is statistically tied with Rep. Carolyn Maloney when matched up in a Democratic primary in 2010, according to a Marist poll conducted June 23-29.

Should she get past Maloney, Gillibrand leads two Republicans matched-up with her in the poll, but the one over whom she has the most comfortable lead - Rep. Peter King - has signaled he would not make the race because of the huge amounts of campaign money he would have to raise.

Each new poll about the political fortunes of New York Gov. David Paterson and the headline on the latest Marist Poll is no exception: "Paterson's Approval Rating Still in the Tank."

"How bad is Governor Paterson's political situation?" asks Marist, which conducted the poll June 23-25. "The answer is pretty bad."

Only 21 percent of voters believe he is doing an excellent or good job (the "excellents" number 3 percent) while 39 percent rate his performance as fair and 37 percent as poor. Fellow Democrats don't give him a rousing endorsement either, with 28 percent regarding his performance as excellent or good (only 4 percent say excellent).

Two new polls are out today looking at how the public thinks President Obama is doing in general and on specific issues, and so far, he is faring pretty well, although the percentage of Americans that disapprove of his handling of the federal deficit and controlling spending outnumber those who give him positive marks.

A Gallup poll conducted May 29-31 has Obama's overall job approval ratio at 61 percent to 34 percent which is lower than his personal favorability ratio of 67 percent to 32 percent. The margin of error is 3 points and the poll included adults, not just voters.

New York voters seem to be taking time to make up their minds about their appointed senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.

Fully 43 percent of respondents in the latest Marist poll couldn't rate her job performance, while 19 percent said she was doing an excellent or good job and 38 percent said she was performing either fair or poor in her new office.

In hypothetical head-to-head matchups, Gillibrand trailed former Republican Gov. George Pataki -- of the 1,029 registered voters surveyed on April 28 and 29, 38 percent preferred Gillibrand while 46 percent favored Pataki. When pollsters asked the same question in March, the outcome was 45 percent for Gillibrand and 41 percent for Pataki.

A plurality of registered voters now think the country is headed in the right direction with that view held by an overwhelming number of Democrats, a majority of independents but rejected by almost two-thirds of Republicans, according to a Marist Institute poll conducted April 1-3. Marist listed ten polls dating back to January on this question, and today's was the first where "right trackers" outnumbered "wrong trackers."