New York State government is “broken and needs to be fixed,” state voters say 89 – 9 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This overwhelming consensus is consistent among all groups and in all areas of the state.
By a 59 – 25 percent margin, New York State voters are optimistic about the next four years with Andrew Cuomo as governor. Even Republicans are optimistic 46 – 39 percent.
But only 45 percent of voters say Cuomo will be able to fix state government, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds, while 42 percent of voters say Cuomo will fail in this effort. Democrats are confident 57 – 28 percent that Cuomo will succeed, but pessimism rules Republicans 57 – 34 percent while independent voters are split 43 – 43 percent.
And voters say 57 – 33 percent that the New York State Legislature will not cooperate in fixing state government. Democrats split 44 – 44 percent on whether the Legislature will cooperate in the fix-up, while Republicans say no 63 – 25 percent and independent voters are glum 66 – 26 percent.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is part of the problem, 57 percent of New York State voters say, while 19 percent expect him to cooperate in fixing government. Even Democrats say 45 – 26 percent that Silver is part of the problem.
“That’s one messed-up state government in Albany, almost everyone agrees,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“Will our new governor, Andrew Cuomo, be able to straighten things out? We get two readings. Most New Yorkers are generally optimistic that he will do a good job overall.”
“But will he be an effective Mr. Fix-it? Ask the question that way and voters are split,” Carroll added.
“New Yorkers agree with people who follow New York politics: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been the 800-pound gorilla in Albany for years. That means he’s ‘part of the problem,’ most voters think. About one-fifth think he’ll cooperate to straighten the place out.”
New York State voters say 69 – 20 percent that an independent commission, not the State Legislature, should draw the district lines from which members of Congress and the State Legislature are elected. There is strong support for an independent commission across all party and regional lines.
Elections would be more competitive if an independent commission created congressional and legislative districts, voters say 71 – 14 percent.
“It’s far from certain that those election-time pledges to make redistricting non-partisan will stick. But voters heavily favor the idea of having an independent commission – not legislators – draw the political lines for themselves and for Congress,” Carroll said. “With the state set to lose one or two members of Congress, drawing those lines could be a real blood-bath.”
By a 48 – 43 percent margin, New York State voters approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing, his lowest approval ever in the Empire State. Democrats approve of the president 75 – 16 percent, but he gets a negative 12 – 82 percent rating from Republicans and a 44 – 46 percent split from independent voters. President Obama gets a negative 36 – 55 percent score from white voters, with positive scores of 93 – 3 percent from black voters and 71 – 17 percent from Hispanic voters.
From November 30 – December 6, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,646 New York State voters, with a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points.
The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and nationwide as a public service and for research. For more data or RSS feed- http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.xml, call (203) 582-5201, or follow us on Twitter.
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One Response
So if 57% think he is part of the problem, what do the other 43% think (that there is no problem? that the Speaker of the Assembly is irrelevant? that they never heard of him).
Of course everything thinks Cuomo is an improvement. It would be very hard for him to make both Spitzer and Patterson look good. No hiddush here.