Poll: Voters Are Angry With Senators, Plan To Vote Them Out

by Contributor | July 21, 2009 7:38 am

You’re angry.  A new poll from Siena College says that New Yorkers are overwhelmingly angry at their state politicians and plan to hold onto that anger until they get a chance to vote.

Siena, which polls on statewide political questions regularly, finds 74% of people polled said they had an unfavorable opinion of the State Senate after its month-long leadership struggle.  Back in February, only 43% held an unfavorable view.

“Voters from every party and every region overwhelmingly reject the notion that it was good that Senators took the time to resolve their differences,” said Siena New York pollster Steven Greenberg in a release.  “Rather, there is real anger at senators – regardless of the voters? party affiliation or region.  Although voters have long demonstrated particularly short memories, most feel that their fellow voters will remember the Senate fight next November and a plurality are already prepared to vote out incumbent senators.”

The battle increased the negative view people have of every statewide politician, except one.  Gov. David Paterson, whose approval ratings sank like a stone beginning in January with what was widely viewed as a botched process to appoint a replacement for departing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, gained 5 points from June to July.  36% view him favorably, while 56% view him unfavorably.  Even so, 69% say they’d rather vote for someone else when his term is up.

Senate leaders Dean Skelos, Malcolm Smith and Pedro Espada all saw their favorability ratings dip a bit or hold steady, though Skelos, at 14% favorability, was the highest-rated of the three.  The fight even took points from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, widely seen as the Democratic party’s best hope for keeping the Governor’s seat.  Cuomo took sides against Paterson.  His favorability dropped 9 points, to 63%.

More than half of New Yorkers want the Senate to be controlled equally by both parties, and a plurality believes that Democrats are the only party that will make needed reforms.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/poll-voters-are-angry-with-senators-plan-to-vote-them-out/

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