Despite his string legislative victories and sky-high approval ratings, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been careful to avoid the national spotlight tempering expectations that he plans to run for president in 2016.

New York residents have noticed, a Marist College YNN/NY1 survey released this evening found.

The survey found that 59 percent of adults surveyed do not think the Democratic governor is paying too much attention to national political issues at the detriment of what’s happening in the Empire State. Slightly more than one in three — 33 percent — think Cuomo is too focused on national issues.

Cuomo has been extremely cautious about raising his national profile, despite the growing chatter of a presidential campaign. Though he achieved major victories that include the legalization of same-sex marriage and an overhaul of the state’s tax code, the governor has not appeared on a nationally broadcast Sunday morning chat show and rarely gives interviews to the national press.

He has also gone so far as not spending a single night outside of New York, spending his vacations either in the Adirondacks or on Long Island. When traveling to Puerto Rico for a legislative conference or to California for a fundraiser, both times Cuomo flew home the same day.

And as Ken Lovett at The Daily News reported today, Cuomo, perhaps mindful of his father’s aborted presidential rollout, has already signaled he isn’t interested in a major role at the party convention this September in Charlotte (though there’s no indication he’s been offered coveted keynote speech that nearly sank Bill Clinton in 1988 and gave Barack Obama a major boost in name recognition).

As usual, the poll also found sky-high approval numbers across the board for the governor (though not as high as the margin he gets from the Quinnipiac and Siena polls).

“Governor Andrew Cuomo continues to be popular across the state and across party lines,” said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff.

The survey found 58 percent of New Yorkers poll approved of Cuomo’s handling of the state, no change from January. With nearly identical numbers, 73 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of Republicans agree that Cuomo is a “good leader” for the state.

The survey of 760 New York state adults was conducted from April 10 to April 12. It included 632 registered voters.

EMBARGOED_Complete April 16th 2012 NYS NY1-YNN-Marist Poll Release and Tables (2)

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