A new Siena Research Institute poll shows New Yorkers are evenly split about the future of the country under President-elect Donald Trump.
Less than seven weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, 49 percent of New Yorkers say they are optimistic about the country's future for the next four years and 48 percent say they are pessimistic. Siena pollster Steve Greenberg: "...and obviously we see a very wide partisan divide on this issue. Republicans, 84 percent of them are optimistic about the next four years under President Trump. Democrats, not so much. 67 percent of them are pessimistic."
51 percent of independents are optimistic. "51 percent of downstaters are pessimistic. 54 percent of upstaters are optimistic. And similarly, we asked voters 'Do you think a Trump presidency will be good for New Yorkers or bad for New Yorkers?' And again, almost evenly divided. 47 percent say a Trump presidency will be good for New Yorkers. 45 percent say it'll be bad. Same kind of partisan split: 83 percent of Republicans say it'll be good. 51 percent of independents say it'll be good, but 64 percent of Democrats say 'that will be bad.'"
The survey shows that by a 65-23 percent margin, voters say congressional Democrats should work collaboratively with President Trump, rather than oppose his agenda. "Even Democrats, 53 percent of Democrats, say that congressional Democrats should work collaboratively with the Trump administration. Obviously, Republicans off the charts at 88 percent. Almost 3-1, voters in New York want to see some bipartisan cooperation in D.C."
With regard to the favorability of Mike Pence: "41 percent have a favorable view of the vice president-elect, 40 percent have an unfavorable view. About a fifth of voters don't know enough about him to have an opinion. And for Donald Trump, his favorability rating is still under water. 41 percent of New Yorkers view Donald Trump favorably compared to 53 percent who view him unfavorably, however that is by far, the best favorability rating Donald Trump has ever gotten in a Siena poll in New York."
At state level, Greenberg says Governor Andrew Cuomo's favorability rating has been fairly consistent. "For the last two years all of the governor's ratings have been within this narrow band, both his favorability rating, his job performance rating, and they remain in that narrow band. But compared to where they were a couple of months ago, the governor's numbers are up a little bit right now. So, 56 percent of New Yorkers view Andrew Cuomo favorably, 36 percent view him unfavorably, up from 56-41 back in October, and in terms of the job that he's doing as governor, 44 percent of New Yorkers says he's doing an excellent or good job. 54 percent say he's only doing a fair or poor job, but that's up from where it was in September when it was 41-57."
47 percent of survey respondents say they are prepared to re-elect Cuomo in 2018, while 44 percent would prefer someone else. And by a 49-44 percent margin, voters say Cuomo should not consider running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Greenberg adds that jobs, education and taxes are the top issues voters want Cuomo to focus on in 2017... "...followed by health care, infrastructure, ethics reform and criminal justice. So for all the talk in the media about ethics and the need for ethics reform in Albany, the governor's been talking a lot about it lately, not one of the top five issues that voters want the governor to be focused on right now."
By a 48-38 percent margin, voters say New York is headed on the right track; from 51-41 percent in October.
A 56-34 percent majority tells Siena the United States is headed in the wrong direction, up from 54-40 percent in October.
The Siena College Poll was conducted November 27-December 1, 2016 by telephone calls conducted in English to 807 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 +/- 3.8 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 Survey Sampling International) from within New York State weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party, region and gender to ensure representativeness.
