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Siena Poll: NYers Support Impeachment

Photo by Pat Bradley

A majority of New Yorkers are behind Democratic efforts to impeach President Donald Trump.

The new Siena Research Institute poll shows New Yorkers support impeaching and removing President Trump 55-38 percent, among party lines.  Here’s poll spokesman Steve Greenberg:    "New York is a very blue state so it's not particularly surprising that New Yorkers overall support Congress impeaching and removing President Donald Trump buy a 55 to 38 percent margin. And in these hyper tense, hyper partisan times what we see is that Democrats support impeaching and removing the president 79 to 13 percent, Republicans oppose impeaching and removing the president by a mirror image 81 to 14 percent, and independents almost down the middle. They leaned slightly toward impeachment 49 to 47 percent."

Greenberg says divisions along party lines are evident, but enthusiasm isn’t equal.   "On questions regarding whether the president's actions warranted an impeaching investigation, whether the House is justified in conducting an impeachment investigation, and whether voters trust more trust Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi, Democratic support for those issues is more intense than is Republican opposition . And on each of those questions independents side with Democrats by between 15 and 20 points."  

Greenberg says the more than 700 New York registered voters surveyed were also asked about the Democratic primary for president:   "Senator Elizabeth Warren has caught and tied former Vice President Joe Biden. Right now Biden and Warren both have the support of 21 percent of Democrats, Senator Bernie Sanders, not far behind with 16 percent. Senator Kamala Harris with 4 percent and Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 4 percent. Everyone else at 1 percent or less."

The survey also measured third-term Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s standing with voters.   " How is Governor Cuomo doing? About the same as he was last month. Right now 49 percent of the voters view Andrew Cuomo favorably, 47 percent view him unfavorably. Last month. it was virtually the same at 48 and 46 percent."

For the first time, the survey found New Yorkers do not oppose the new law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license. It is supported by 48 percent and opposed by 47 percent, up from 45-50 percent last month. And when it comes to splitting New York into two separate states, upstate and downstate:   "New Yorkers say 'no thank you very much.' 66% of Voters are opposed to breaking up New York into two states."
Just 25 percent of voters support the idea of dividing New York into two states – New York City combined with the downstate suburbs as one state, and the other 51 counties as another state — a provocative idea that regularly comes in the state legislature.  

The poll also found 40 percent of New Yorkers spend at least a half hour daily watching one of the 24-hour cable news channels. Another 16 percent watch at least a half hour a day of cable news a few days a week, with 21 percent watching that much once in a while. One in five never watch. CNN is the cable news channel most trusted by 35 percent of New Yorkers, followed by Fox News, 22 percent, and MSNBC at 21 percent. One in seven trust none of them.

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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