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THE BIGGEST LOSER

ALBANY – Gov. Paterson’s job-approval rating has sunk lower than any New York governor’s in the last 30 years, according to a poll released yesterday.

The survey by Marist College found that only 26 percent think Paterson is doing a good job – lower even than the depths plumbed nearly a year ago to the day by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in the midst of the hooker scandal that cost him his job.

“It’s extraordinary in the extent of the decline,” said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff, who called Paterson’s approval the lowest in the survey’s 30-year history.

“This is not a falloff at the edges, it’s really at the core,” he said.

The new poll found just 26 percent (2 percent “excellent,” 24 percent “good”) of New York voters approving of Paterson’s performance in office.

Seventy-one percent gave him either a fair (43 percent) or poor (28 percent) grade.

The lowest job-performance rating for either Spitzer or George Pataki was 30 percent. Mario Cuomo’s lowest was 32 percent.

At the end of January, a Marist poll had found Paterson with a job-approval rating 20 points higher, at 46 percent.

Pollsters have cited Paterson’s admittedly botched handling of Caroline Kennedy’s ill-fated bid for the Senate and controversy over the governor’s budget proposals to explain his sharp drop.

The negative rating cut across political lines, with only 30 percent of the governor’s fellow Democrats, along with 26 percent of Republicans, saying he is doing an above-average job.

If there was any good news in the poll for Paterson, it was that 77 percent of voters think he’s working hard.

The poll also showed Paterson getting clobbered – 62-26 percent – in a Democratic primary by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they were dissatisfied with Paterson’s handling of the state’s ongoing budget crisis, a finding that may reflect the impact of millions of dollars spent by the health-care union on TV attacks.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com