New York citizens think Clinton will run for president, won't back her

Six in 10 New York voters believe Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is planning to run for president in 2008, but only about a third of her home-state voters say they would back her if she did so, a statewide poll reported Thursday.

Photo: New York citizens think Clinton will run for president, won't back her

Almost half of New York voters, including three of every 10 Democrats, said they would not vote for her for president, according to the poll from Siena College's Research Institute.

The Siena findings mirror those reported by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion in a January poll that found 59 percent of New York voters said they expect Clinton to run for president, but 62 percent said it was unlikely she could win.

Siena 's telephone poll of 620 registered voters was conducted March 1-7 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points, reports the AP.

D.M.