By Gregory Krieg, CNN

(CNN) -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has raced out to a 36-point lead over his progressive primary challenger, Cynthia Nixon, according to a new poll -- welcome news to his campaign after a day spent fending off criticism over its fundraising tactics.

The Quinnipiac University survey out Wednesday found Cuomo, who is seeking a third term, with the support of 59% of registered New York Democrats to Nixon's 23%.

He holds significant advantages in every demographic subset, including an 11-point edge among "very liberal" voters, a group Nixon had led with in a May Quinnipiac poll and has appealed to with a political platform that has driven Cuomo left and made her a favorite of progressive activists. In the May survey, Cuomo's lead overall was 22 percentage points.

In a statement, Nixon's campaign downplayed the poll, pointing to recent New York primary victories by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who faced similarly ugly numbers ahead of her defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley, and Dana Balter, another progressive insurgent who defeated the establishment-backed Juanita Perez Williams in the 24th District.

"Polls of registered voters clearly aren't capturing the kind of Democrats who have been turning out to vote in primaries -- the most motivated, most progressive part of the base," Nixon spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said, noting that 40% of those quizzed by Quinnipiac about Nixon directly said they had yet to form opinions on the candidate.

The poll arrived as Cuomo's fundraising practices were coming under increased scrutiny. His most recent report shows a campaign with more than $31.1 million in cash on hand ahead of the September 13 primary. He brought in about $6 million over the first six months of this year, while spending a little more than $5.3 million.

Nixon has about $660,000 in the bank, with $500,000 of it given over the last month. She has raised a total of $1.6 million -- from 30,500 contributions, according to the campaign -- since entering the contest in March.

The Nixon campaign has attacked Cuomo for pursuing big-dollar donors, potentially damaging criticism at a time when Democrats are stressing the importance of small-dollar donations. In response, Cuomo has more actively sought those contributions. According to his campaign, 57% of its most recent donations were for less than $250.

But a closer reading of his July filing revealed some questionable donation patterns. One contributor, Christopher Kim, gave on 69 occasions for a grand total of $77. Kim reportedly shares an address with a Cuomo staffer. Other notable small-dollar donations came via Cuomo aides' family members.

"Not only did (Cuomo) go to laughable and expensive lengths to increase the number of small dollar donors, but he also spent more than $5 million -- including nearly $2 million in polling and TV ad expenses," Hitt said in a news release.

Regarding Kim, Cuomo spokeswoman Abbey Collins said, "We appreciate his enthusiasm. Going forward, we'll put measures in place to count contributions like this differently."

Collins also cited some small donations Nixon's staff made to her campaign.

"We rolled out a new low dollar campaign to reach a wide variety of supporters and as part of that effort reached out to our network, just as Ms. Nixon's campaign has dozens of contributions from her staff and their family members," she said.

In an email, Nixon adviser Rebecca Katz rejected the comparison, which she called intentionally misleading.

"It's absurd to suggest that Cynthia staffers buying campaign merchandise is comparable to the Cuomo campaign's systematic effort to juice the numbers to make up for a lack of genuine grassroots support," Katz said.

The Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday was conducted July 12-16. It surveyed 934 New York voters, with a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points. Of that total, 415 are Democrats. That sample had a margin of error of +/- 6.2 percentage points.