A new poll of New York State voters suggests a hypothetical John McCain-Condoleezza Rice ticket would beat the so-called "dream ticket" of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, even though Rice has sought to douse rumors that she's seeking the VP slot.

The WNBC/Marist Poll, released Wednesday, showed voters in the Democratic stronghold of New York preferred the Republican McCain-Rice team over the Democratic duo, no matter which Democratic candidate was on top.

In the poll, 49 percent said they would support the GOP ticket, and 46 percent said they would support a ticket with Clinton the presidential nominee and Obama her running mate. With Obama at the top, 49 percent still said they would support McCain-Rice, while 44 percent said they would support the Democratic ticket. Clinton is a New York senator.

The survey, however, found that a ticket composed of McCain and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman would trail the Democrats in similar match-ups.

The poll surveyed 576 registered New York voters from April 3-4. The margin of error was 4 points.

Despite rumors that Secretary of State Rice is seeking the vice presidential nomination, Rice said Tuesday that she has no aspirations to that end and that when she leaves her post in the Bush administration she intends to return to Stanford University in California, where she was provost.

Obama has objected to suggestions that he join up with Clinton.

Click here to see the New York state poll results.