Spitzer held a 48 percent-to-33 percent lead over Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in the Democratic primary race for city comptroller, the poll released by the Hamden, Conn., university said.

Spitzer resigned as governor in March 2008 after it became public he was a patron of high-priced prostitute Ashley Dupre.

"Notoriety has earned the 'Tabloid Twins' ... good initial numbers in the polls," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Whether those numbers hold up in the real poll on Primary Election Day is the big question."

The mayoral and comptroller primaries are Sept. 10.

Results are based on a poll of 738 New York City registered Democrats July 8-14. The margin of error is 3.6 percentage points.