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Loudonville, NY (77WABC)- Despite scandals, a Siena College Research Poll out Monday morning finds respondents 51-37 % say NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) should not resign. That compares to 50 to 35 percent in April. New Yorkers who responded to the poll say 60 to 32 % that they approve of the Governor’s handling of the viral pandemic, virtually unchanged from 60-33 percent last month.
Cuomo’s favorability, job performance and re-elect ratings all continued to head in a downward trend, as his favorability rating is now negative 40-52 percent, down from 43-45 percent in March and 56-39 percent in February.
The Democratic Governor is the subject of an investigation by the NY State Attorney General into alleged incidents of sexual harassment. The FBI and Brooklyn federal prosecutors are also looking into whether the Cuomo administrations allegedly covered up of nursing home death totals related to Covid-19,
By a 44-22 percent margin, voters think Cuomo has committed sexual harassment, with 34 percent undecided. Last month, a plurality, 41 percent, were undecided, with voters thinking he had 35-24 percent. The poll finds overwhelming support (72-20%) for the recently enacted Millionaire’s Tax and strong support (57-36%) for Legalized Pot.
“Voters to Andrew Cuomo: ‘we’ve got some good news and some bad news.’ On the one hand, his favorability rating is now the lowest it has ever been, with more than 50 percent of voters viewing Cuomo unfavorably for the very first time in a Siena College poll. On the other hand, a majority of voters –including Democrats by two-to-one and a plurality of independents – continue to say that Cuomo should not resign, and a similar majority say he can still effectively do his job as governor,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
Cuomo’s job performance rating is negative 42-56 percent, down from 46-52 percent in March and 51-47 percent in February. Right now, 33 percent are prepared to re-elect Cuomo next year if he runs, compared to 57 percent who prefer ‘someone else,’ down from 34-52 percent in March and 46-45 percent in February.
“While the erosion in Cuomo’s favorability, job performance and re-elect ratings was not as large in April –falling between six and 10 points – as it was in March – falling between 10 and 19 points – his ratings continue to push further into negative territory,” Greenberg said. “Interestingly, since February, on all three measures, there was virtually no movement among Republicans, who already had Cuomo at very low levels. There was significant downward movement by independents and the largest drop was among Democrats. “In February, Democrats were prepared to re-elect Cuomo 65-26 percent. Today, Democrats say they would re-elect Cuomo next year by the narrowest of margins, 46-43 percent,” Greenberg said. “At the same time, by a margin of 85-7 percent, Democrats say they want to see a Democrat win in next year’s gubernatorial election, as
do all voters by a 52-32 percent margin.
The full findings of the Siena Poll can be found here.
