Almost Two-Thirds of NY Voters Agree with Supreme Court
Same Sex Marriage Decision; Support Obamacare Ruling 2-to-1
Voters Overwhelmingly Say Confederate Flag Represents ‘Racial
Intolerance’ and Not ‘Southern Heritage’; Republicans Don’t Agree
Clinton is NY Candidate Most Voters Want to See Become President;
Trump is NY Candidate Most Voters Do Not Want to See as President
Loudonville, NY. By a 64-28 percent margin, New York voters agree with the recent Supreme Court decision that guarantees a right for same sex couples to marry in all 50 states, and by a 57-26 percent margin, they agree with the Court’s Affordable Care Act – or Obamacare – decision that allows the Federal government to provide insurance through federally-operated health insurance exchanges, in addition to state-operated exchanges, according to a new Siena College poll of New York State registered voters released today.
By better than two-to-one, 59-27 percent, voters say flying the Confederate flag represents racial intolerance rather than Southern heritage. Among the four presidential candidates with New York ties – Hillary Clinton, Chris Christie, George Pataki, and Donald Trump – 52 percent of voters most want to see Clinton elected President and 55 percent least want to see Trump elected.
“The Supreme Court’s same sex marriage decision has broad support among New Yorkers. Upstaters agree with the decision by a 21-point margin, New York City voters support it by a 35-point margin and downstate suburbanites agree with the decision by an overwhelming 75-19 percent margin,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. More than 60 percent of independents and nearly three-quarters of Democrats agree with the decision to allow same sex marriages in all 50 states, while Republicans are virtually evenly divided. While a strong majority of older voters agree with the decision, more than three-quarters of younger voters agree.
“Interestingly, the overall statewide agreement with the decision – 64-28 percent – is nearly identical to the 65-32 percent support for legalizing same sex marriage in all 50 states found in a Siena College Poll in March 2014,” Greenberg said. “From the time New York passed its marriage equality law four years ago until today, New Yorkers have consistently demonstrated support for it.”
“The Obamacare decision enjoys strong statewide support, however, with wide partisan differences: 75 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of independents and only 26 percent of Republicans agree with the decision allowing Federal insurance exchanges in addition to those run by the states,” Greenberg said. “More than two-thirds of New York City voters agree, as do a majority of downstate suburbanites and a plurality of upstaters.”
Blue State Yankees Say ‘No’ to Confederate Flag
“Nearly six in ten New Yorkers say that flying the Confederate flag represents racial intolerance with only 27 percent saying the flag represents Southern heritage,” Greenberg said. “A majority of voters from every region, gender, race, religion, age, and party – with one exception – says that the Confederate flag represents racial intolerance. Only Republicans, by a 49-33 percent margin, say the flag represents Southern heritage.”
New Yorker in the White House? Clinton, Yes; Trump, No
“Of the four presidential candidates with New York ties, Clinton, the former U.S. Senator, has the best favorability rating and is far and away voters’ choice to win the White House in 2016. Among those four, Clinton has the support of 52 percent as the candidate they most want to be President. The other three garner between 11 and 14 percent,” Greenberg said.
“Who do New Yorkers not want to see in the Oval Office? The Donald. With more than two-thirds of New Yorkers having an unfavorable view of Trump, 55 percent say he is the candidate they least want to be President,” Greenberg said. “Former Governor Pataki has a positive favorability rating and while only 14 percent say he’s their top New York choice for President, an even smaller six percent say he would be their least favorite choice.”
New York Voters Like Their United States Senators
“Senator Chuck Schumer has a 62-27 percent favorability rating, up slightly from 61-29 percent in December. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s favorability rating is 54-18 percent, up from 50-21 percent in December,” Greenberg said. “Each is viewed overwhelmingly favorably by Democrats, strongly favorably by independents and favorably by a plurality of Republicans. They are both also viewed favorably in every region of the state.”
This Siena College Poll was conducted July 6-9, 2015 by telephone calls conducted in English to 802 New York State registered voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample provided by Survey Sampling International of landline and cell phone telephone numbers from within New York State weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party, region and gender to ensure representativeness. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in NYS. SRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Steve Greenberg at (518) 469-9858. For survey cross-tabs: www.Siena.edu/SRI/SNY.
