Today’s Quinnipiac poll that shows wide support for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2013 legislative agenda is a reflection that New Yorkers are in sync with him, the governor told Susan Arbetter in a Capitol Pressroom interview.

Cuomo made an improptu phone call to the radio show this morning, reiterating much of what his top aide Larry Schwartz told Fred Dicker this morning: Anything short of what he deems an “independent” process for casino building would result in him dropping support for the measure.

“I don’t want to be involved in casinos… if its going to be a politicized process, if that’s what the Legislature wants to do, I’m not going to recommend for the people of the state,” Cuomo said.

But he also took aim at the perception from the journalists here at the Capitol that he’s somehow making a “left turn” after his third State of the State address earlier this month emphasized decidedly liberal and progressive goals such as a minimum wage hike, gun control and a women’s equality agenda.

“What they missed frankly is that it’s not a leftist agenda,” he said. “New York is a socially progressive state. It’s an agenda supported by Democrats and Republicans.”

The Q-poll found that most New York voters surveyed back what Cuomo proposed in the State of the State even as a poll released yesterday found a 15-percentage point drop for the governor after his gun control law was approved.

Cuomo has frequently described himself as a “broke progressive” to reflect his fiscal and social policies.

The governor’s budget proposals have either cut spending or, more recently, made for modest increases in spending while resisting broad-based tax increases.

Though Cuomo isn’t necessarily cheering the decrease in approval from an unusually long streak in which he had a 70 percent rating from voters, he’s acknowledging that he’s comfortable with having spent political capital on what he considers to be an important issue.

“I’m not hear to lead by polls, Susan. I’m here to solve the tough problems,” he said.

Cuomo added, “New York accomplished it and New York is safer for what we did.”

Update: A reader reminds me that Quinnipiac poll spokesman Mickey Carroll suggested yesterday that the poll drop for Cuomo could be related to issues beyond gun control. But today in an interview with Dicker, Carroll recanted.

“I do know that my early analysis was wrong,” he said. “Governor’s precipitous drop was tied to gun control and I hadn’t thought it would be.”

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