Fourteen months after being elevated to the governor’s job, David A. Paterson is deeply unpopular among New Yorkers, who doubt his ability to grapple with the state’s increasingly bleak economic situation, according to a poll by The New York Times, Cornell University and NY1 News.
With layoffs hitting close to home, those surveyed expressed little confidence that Mr. Paterson could bring new jobs to the state, reduce property taxes or deal with a serious crisis.
Mr. Paterson is now less popular in the state than his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace. Only 21 percent of New York voters say they have a favorable view of Mr. Paterson; 26 percent have a favorable view of Mr. Spitzer.
Seven in 10 respondents said Mr. Paterson did not deserve to be elected in 2010.
In a worrisome sign for Mr. Paterson, the poll found overwhelming approval of the way Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo was handling his job. Mr. Cuomo is viewed as a potential challenger for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor.
The survey also revealed that the number of New Yorkers who supported the legalization of same-gender marriage had risen in the last year.
The poll, a telephone survey of 1,057 adults throughout the state, was conducted from May 29 through June 3 – before the Republicans wrested control of the Senate – and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
With 17 months until he is up for election, Mr. Paterson may have time to repair his image. But in follow-up interviews, those surveyed seemed to rue having given him the benefit of the doubt a year ago. And voters appeared to be souring on Mr. Paterson personally, with 50 percent viewing him unfavorably, five times as many as a year ago.
Even black New Yorkers took a dim view of the state’s first black governor: 38 percent approved of his performance, 41 percent disapproved. Only 22 percent viewed him favorably.
(Source: NY Times)
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Now that the regular public has been exposed to the inner workings of the Senate and how slim the majority is there, our job is to bring out the vote.Our interests are not being represented and that is because we have been weak at the polls. We have all read this many times and the proof couldn’t be more clear this week.The time is now to flex our political muscle and in NY State politics that means going to the polls in numbers.
The Mayors race is up for election and next year the Gov. THe political realities for the next decade are up for grabs over the next 2 elections.
We will continue to be challenged on every one of our issues and it is imperative that the dedicated and knowledgeable posters on this site (who have proven to care deeply about issues)urge their friends, family and associates to register and vote. If your reading this and understand the issues you are knowledgeable enough to effect real change. There is much creativity and ingenuity in our community. Let’s all come up with a plan to register 25,000-50,000 voters and really change the equation on the ground. I know that the Agudah had real success this past election registering about 10,000 voters but its not nearly enough. Want to get Bloombergs attention? VOTE!!!!! We can’t out spend him or buy him but we can surely make him take notice.
We must improve on voter registartion locally and nationally and actually get to the polls on election day.
For further info call the Agudah at 212-797-9000 and ask them to transfer you to the voter registration office.