Siena’s pre-conventions poll reveals newly-minted Democratic gubernatorial contender Andrew Cuomo continues to blow away the competition, while dark horse candidate Carl Paladino has edged Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy for second place among Republicans.

Cuomo handily defeats all GOP comers, leading Rick Lazio 66-24, and both Levy and Paladino 65-22.

In a three-way Republican primary, Lazio is 13 points ahead of Paladino and 15 points in front of Levy, but most voters – a whopping 41 percent – remain undecided as the party’s convention is scheduled to kick off on June 1 in Manhattan.

M. Myers Mermel, who announced his intention to switch his candidacy from LG to governor today, is not included in the poll.

In the hotly contested AG’s race, Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice has a slight edge (21 percent, with the next closest candidate, Sen. Eric Schneiderman, at 9) over her four declared Democratic primary opponents, though nearly two-thirds of voters (61 percent) remain undecided.

Rice also has a wider leader than her fellow Democratic AG contenders, (18 points), over the Republican frontrunner, Staten Island DA Dan Donovan. But all the would-be AGs – including Donovan – remain largely unknown to three-quarters of the electorate.

The poll brings good news for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is finally gaining ground with voters after seeing her favorability rating stalled for months.

She’s at 42-24 – her highest rating since inheriting her office from ex-Sen. Hillary Clinton last winter – and now leads all her would-be GOP challengers by more than 50 percent.

In the state comptroller’s race, Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli has a two-to-one lead over his GOP challenger, Harry Wilson, but nearly two-thirds of voters still have no opinion about DiNapoli despite the fact that he’s spent more than three years in office.

Nearly nine in 10 voters have no idea who Wilson is, either, but he’s a political newcomer and the campaign is barely underway. Wilson is the only GOP candidate on which Republican and Conservative leaders are united, and is widely considered to have the best shot at unseating an incumbent at the moment.

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