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Some think New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo might run for president in 2016. This poll should give them pause. (Tim Roske/AP)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is seen among the more likely (and more formidable) potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.But a new poll suggests Cuomo has big problems with his left flank -- and that New York liberals are actually prepared to abandon him en masse.

The Fix's Sean Sullivan wrote a while back that Cuomo was gradually alienating liberals for a variety of reasons, and the newSiena College poll suggests that opposition is more than just a token.The poll -- as most every Cuomo poll does -- shows that the governor is likely to cruise to reelection, thanks to his still-strong approval ratings. Cuomo leads Republican Rob Astorino by 30 points, 58-28.

Where things get interesting is when you toss in a liberal third-party candidate, running under the banner of one of New York's well-established minor parties, the Working Families Party. (The WFP generally backs Democrats but will occasionally oppose Democrats who aren't with it on key issues. It hasn't been happy with Cuomo, particularly for his recent support of charter schools.)

When Cuomo and Astorino are in a three-way race with a hypothetical liberal Working Families Party candidate, Cuomo's share of the vote drops off a cliff, to 39 percent, with this hypothetical candidate taking a shocking 24 percent of the vote.

Now, this is highly hypothetical, and the Working Families Party hasn't said whether it will run an alternative to Cuomo. The poll result also doesn't suggest Cuomo would even lose such a three-way race.

But it does show that liberals aren't particularly enchanted with Cuomo -- to put it lightly -- and that if he ran in 2016, his appeal to the party base would likely be quite limited.Cuomo maintains a relatively strong favorable rating among Democrats (69 percent) and liberals (70 percent), but it's also clear that these groups wish he were more liberal.

Liberal voters say 54-28 that Cuomo is more of a moderate than a liberal, and 80 percent of them say he should govern more as a liberal. They also say by a 2-to-1 margin that he's friendlier with business groups than with organized labor.

None of these are the marks of a favorite of the Democratic Party base -- or someone who can credibly claim to be a liberal alternative to Hillary Clinton in a presidential primary.

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Andrew Cuomo has big problems with liberals

Antonella Artuso, Queen's Park Bureau Chief Apr 21, 2014

, Last Updated: 6:22 PM ET

TORONTO A "progress report" issued by the Liberals says middle and lower income Ontarians are better off after 11 years of their government.

"The purpose is really to highlight and bring together everything the government is doing to help people as they try to balance their household budget and save for their future," Consumer Services Minister Tracy MacCharles said Monday. "We know families are facing pressure."

The 2014 Pocketbook Initiatives Progress Report lists government initiatives such as a made-in-Ontario plan to improve retirement security, an increase in the minimum wage to $11, new consumer protection legislation for wireless consumers, an almost 6% decline in average auto insurance rates, and a 30% break on tuition fees for families with an annual income before taxes of $160,000 or less.

Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli said the Ontario Liberals' report ignores a lot of initiatives that left people with less money in their pocketbooks.

"What's really missing is the high hydro rates, the health tax, the eco tax, the HST those are the things that are missing off the list and those are the hurtful things that have had most impact on families in Ontario," Fedeli said.

The progress report comes just 10 days before Premier Kathleen Wynne is to release her second budget, and a countdown to a crucial confidence vote that could trigger a provincial election.

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Liberals boast of better living in Ontario; critics not sold

By Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press Published Monday, April 21, 2014 3:05PM CST Last Updated Monday, April 21, 2014 3:45PM CST

WINNIPEG -- This should be a celebratory time for the Manitoba Liberals -- they're riding at a near record-high level in opinion polls under new leader Rana Bokhari heading into next month's annual general meeting.

But the party is dealing with another public eruption of internal criticism accusing Bokhari and her leadership team of stomping on the rights of grassroots members and, despite the improved popularity, of hurting the party.

"If this leadership group were trying to destroy the party, it could not be doing a better job," Shane Nestruck, president of the party's constituency association in Fort Garry-Riverview, told The Canadian Press on Monday.

"The only reason I am not resigning is that I hope for a complete change of leadership at the coming annual general meeting."

Nestruck's criticism echoes comments in February from Bob Axworthy, who ran against Bokhari for the leadership last October and who accused her and Liberal executives of "purging" some longtime members in an attempt to control the party.

Nestruck came forward after an anonymous blog surfaced online last week that was severely critical of Bokhari. The blog has since been taken down.

Nestruck points to recent moves by new members of the party brass.

The party issued letters in February to a half-dozen members, including Nestruck, telling them their membership was under review and offering no explanation. More recently, party president Robert Young decided not to call any more board of directors gatherings until after the annual general meeting.

The party brass has put forward several constitutional amendments for the upcoming meeting, including a plan to shrink the board of directors and reduce the minimum number of board meetings each year to six from eight. Another proposed amendment would formalize the party's code of conduct and make it an offence to do anything to bring the party, its candidates or its leader "into disrepute."

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Manitoba Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari faces more internal turmoil

The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:49AM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:50AM EDT

TORONTO -- The governing Liberals are making another budget promise: to tie future increases to the Ontario Child Benefit to inflation.

They say it would start July 2015 if their crucial May 1 budget passes in the legislature.

The annual maximum payment per child under the age of 18 -- which is available to families making $20,000 or less a year -- will rise to $1,310 this July.

The minority Liberals are also proposing to increase wages for early childhood educators and other child care workers.

They say it would raise wages by an average of two dollars an hour, with the first increase starting in January 2015.

The Liberals need at least one opposition party to support their budget to avoid an election.

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Ontario Liberals promise to tie future increases to Child Benefit to inflation

As veteran politicos like to say, you can almost smell the campaign bus fumes outside the legislature.

Premier Kathleen Wynnes minority Liberal government gave itself a glowing report card Monday, capping an Easter weekend that began with the release of TV ads of her slamming Progressive Conservative rival Tim Hudak for an anti-worker agenda and NDP Andrea Horwath for a lack of vision on transit funding.

Topping the list of Liberal achievements, sent out as a news release Monday afternoon, was a plan for a made-in-Ontario pension plan that the Conservatives noted is some time away from being enacted, if at all.

This is electioneering on the dime of the taxpayer, charged Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli (Nipissing), his partys finance critic.

With the province counting down to a May 1 budget that, if defeated, would spark a spring election, all parties are increasingly on a war footing in case buses are needed to haul Wynne, Hudak, Horwath and reporters around the province.

Everyone is cycling up, said one veteran Liberal.

The NDP, meanwhile, denied an online report Monday that its hierarchy has decided to topple the government over a police investigation into former premier Dalton McGuintys last chief of staff and the alleged deletion of documents in the $1.1 billion gas plants scandal.

New Democrats are focused on getting results for people, said NDP house leader Gilles Bisson, who maintained his party wants to see the details of Wynnes fiscal blueprint before making a call.

The claim that a decision of some kind has been made about the future of Ontarios minority government is a complete fabrication.

Just the same, candidates from all parties are opening campaign offices, nomination meetings are being held and strategies mapped out, with the NDP planning a get-out-the-vote seminar for activists later this week in Toronto. The Tories have 99 candidates nominated out of 107 ridings, while the NDP have 58 and the Liberals 59.

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Ontario Liberals progress report just electioneering, Tories say