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Siena Poll Finds Gov. Cuomo Politically Wounded As He Gears Up For Fourth Term Run

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
https://www.flickr.com/photos/governorandrewcuomo/49701753947/
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

In March, half of New York voters said Andrew Cuomo should not resign as he faced mounting scandals. Today, a majority would prefer “someone else” to run for governor.

When the Siena College Research Institute asked New York voters what they would like Governor Andrew Cuomo to do, 23 percent answered “he should resign immediately,” 39 percent said “he should serve out his term but not seek re-election,” and 33 percent said “he should continue to serve and run for re-election.”

"Only one-third of New Yorkers - including just 43 percent of Democrats - think Cuomo should run for re-election." ~ Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg

With just 16 months before the next gubernatorial election and less than a year away from the primary, just 43% of Democrats think Cuomo should run for re-election. Siena’s Steve Greenberg:

"So if you look at that together, what you see is a third of voters say run for re election, governor. And a 62% of voters say whether you leave now or leave in a year and a half, don't run for a fourth term."

Cuomo, a Democrat who wants to run for a fourth term, faces a raft of investigations over sexual harassment allegations against him, his handling of COVID-19, the $5 million he received for a pandemic memoir, and more.

Greenberg says voters are more closely divided over impeachment.

"45% oppose the Assembly impeaching Andrew Cuomo right now compared to 35% of voters who think he should be impeached immediately."

When it comes to the pandemic, Greenberg says voters by a 51 to 32% margin, approve of how he handled it.

"But when we asked about specific aspects of his handling of the pandemic, managing the vaccination program, 66% of New Yorkers including 47%, a plurality of Republicans, say he's done a good job keeping New Yorkers informed with accurate information. 16 to 27% of New Yorkers say he's done a good job. Overseeing the reopening a little closer, but still 54 to 33% say he's doing a good job. So by and large on the pandemic, voters give the governor very strong grades with one glaring exception. Addressing questions about his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, by a three to one margin, 60 to 22%, including 49%, a plurality of democrat voters, say Andrew Cuomo has done a bad job."

Cuomo’s office reacted to the findings, saying in a statement the “Siena poll is surprisingly positive because New Yorkers have only heard one side of the story and haven't yet heard the truth.” Top Cuomo advisor Rich Azzopardi did not elaborate.

Greenberg adds the most important issue voters want Albany working on right now is crime.

New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay believes a Republican candidate has a good shot at defeating Cuomo next election, which would be the first time a Republican has won statewide since 2002.

"It's always hard in a state like New York to win but certainly the other side, the Democrats, have given a lot for Republicans to run on. And history shows, I mean, no one gave Governor Pataki a snowball's chance and he pulled it off against the governor's father. So I would never say never."

Barclay spoke on WAMC’s Capitol Connection program.

This Siena College Poll was conducted June 22-29, 2021 among 809 New York State registered voters with 522 voters contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode and 287 responses drawn from a proprietary online panel (Lucid) of New Yorkers. Telephone calls were conducted in English and respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest person in the household. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline (ASDE) and cell phone (Dynata) telephone numbers within New York State weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data from both collection modes (phone and web) was merged and statistically adjusted by age, party by region, race/ethnicity, education, and gender to ensure representativeness. It has an overall margin of error of + 4.1 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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