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Gov. Cuomo’s Popularity Declines In Latest Siena Poll

Siena Research Institute

According to a new poll, New York voters are less satisfied with two of the state's most prominent public officials.

The bloom is off the bush for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Less than a month ago, a Siena Poll showed half of New Yorkers viewed the governor favorably.

Pollster Steve Greenberg said at the time that Cuomo had a 51 percent favorability rating, noting that in the first month of Cuomo's first term it was 70 percent, in the first month of his second term 60 percent. In the latest survey out Monday, conducted from February 4 through 7, the third-term Democrat is falling.   "43 percent of New Yorkers say they have a favorable view of Andrew Cuomo, 50 percent have an unfavorable view. It's the lowest, 43 is the lowest his favorability has ever been. 50 percent is the highest his unfavorability has ever been. It's only the second time his favorability rating has dropped so that it's now underwater."

Greenberg says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer isn't polling much better.    "Right now, 47 percent of New Yorkers view him favorably. 46 percent view him unfavorably. That is down from last month when 53 percent of New Yorkers viewed Schumer favorably and 39 percent viewed him unfavorably.  The interesting thing about Senator Schumer is that it's related to his job as U.S. Senate Minority Leader. Two years ago, right before he became Senate Minority Leader, New York Republicans viewed Schumer favorably, 55 to 37 percent. Today, only 15 percent of Republicans view Schumer favorably. 84 percent view him unfavorably."

Ratings for the New York Assembly and Senate are both down but Greenberg says they've stayed in positive territory.   "Right now, the Assembly 43 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable. The Senate 43 percent favorable, 41 percent unfavorable. What's interesting, Governor Cuomo, 43 percent favorable. State Assembly 43 percent favorable. State Senate 41 percent favorable. But the Senate and Assembly are still above water. Governor Cuomo with his 50 percent unfavorable, below water."

Rich Azzopardi is a top aide to the governor.    "Siena doesn’t always get it right and, color us skeptical, but for the governor, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, the state Senate and the state Assembly to all have similar across the board slides, leads us to believe this poll is an outlier and much like the Siena poll three days before the November election doesn’t reflect the sentiment of New Yorkers. We’ve had the most productive month in history that finally saw the passage of popular, long-stalled legislation and we’re going to continue to move New York forward."

Greenberg adds  "The other thing we see this month is that a lot of the actions taken by Albany in January, major issues dealt with, from the Child Victim Act to the Reproductive Health Act, to Gun Control Laws and election reforms and GENDA, well, right now voters say 'Albany did pretty darn good.' 47 percent of New Yorkers give Albany a grade of 'A' or 'B' for the month of January --  that's nearly half. Only 27 percent give Albany a 'D' or an 'F.' Democrats overwhelmingly give Albany strong grades. Two-thirds give them an 'A' or a 'B.' Republicans, quite the opposite. More than two-thirds of Republicans give Albany a 'D' or an 'F' for their actions in January."

  • POLL RESULTS
  • The Siena College Poll was conducted February 4-7, 2019 by telephone calls conducted in English to 778 New York State registered voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers (both from ASDE Survey Sampler) from within New York State. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party by region, and gender to ensure representativeness.
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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