- They Say He Can Effectively Do Job as Governor Despite Investigations, 48-34%
- 35% Say Cuomo Has Committed Sexual Harassment, 24% Say He Has Not; Voters Satisfied with Way Cuomo Has Addressed the Allegations, 57-32%
- NYers Positive About Cuomo’s Pandemic Performance with One Exception; Strong Majority Gives Cuomo Negative Grade on Nursing Home Death Data; Cuomo Favorability Falls to 43-45%; Only 1/3 Say They Would Re-Elect Him
- 74% of Voters, Including Half of Republicans, Support New COVID Relief Law
Loudonville, NY. Voters say 50-35 percent that Governor Andrew Cuomo should not immediately resign. By 48-34 percent, they say he can continue to effectively do his job as governor. One-third of voters say that Cuomo has committed sexual harassment, one-quarter say he has not, and a plurality are unsure. Voters are satisfied with the way Cuomo has addressed the allegations, 57-32 percent, according to a new Siena College Poll of New York State voters, conducted March 8-12, released today.
Voters approve of Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, 60-33 percent, virtually unchanged from 61-34 percent last month. Voters give Cuomo positive grades on four specifics related to the pandemic – communicating, providing accurate information, reopening plans, and managing the vaccine rollout – however, when it comes to making COVID-related nursing home death data public, voters give Cuomo a negative grade, 27-66 percent.
“While many elected officials – Democrats and Republicans alike – have called for Cuomo’s resignation, by a 50-35 percent margin, the voters of New York say Cuomo should not immediately resign. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans say Cuomo should resign, however, 61 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of independents, a plurality, say he should not,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “A majority of New York City voters and a plurality of voters from both upstate and the downstate suburbs say he should not resign.
“Similarly, voters say despite the ongoing investigations, Cuomo can continue to effectively do his job as governor, 48-34 percent,” Greenberg said. “A strong majority of Democrats and a plurality of independents say he can govern effectively, while two-thirds of Republicans disagree. Voters outside of New York City are closely divided, however, a strong majority of New York City voters say he can effectively do his job.”
“While more voters, 35 percent, say Cuomo has committed sexual harassment than those who say he has not committed sexual harassment, 24 percent, the plurality of voters, 41 percent, are undecided,” Greenberg said.
“Cuomo has offered an apology and said his office will cooperate with the independent investigation. By a 57-32 percent margin, voters say they are satisfied with the way Cuomo has addressed the allegations against him,” Greenberg said. “Two-thirds of Democrats are satisfied, as are 56 percent of independents; 57 percent of Republicans are not satisfied with the way Cuomo has addressed the allegations. Fifty-four percent of men and 59 percent of women say they are satisfied.”
Cuomo has a 43-45 percent favorability rating, down significantly from 56-39 percent in February. His job performance rating is 46-52 percent, down from 51-47 percent last month. Currently, 34 percent of voters say they are prepared to re-elect Cuomo if he runs for re-election in 2022 and 52 percent say they would ‘prefer someone else,’ down significantly from 46-45 percent in February.
“Cuomo’s standing with voters has clearly fallen in the last month. His favorability rating and his re-elect number are both down net 19 points, while his job performance rating is down net 10 points,” Greenberg said. “Cuomo’s drop in all three ratings is largely the result of Democrats. Among Democrats alone, his favorability rating dropped net 31 points and his re-elect dropped net 33 points. In fact, only 46 percent of Democrats now want to re-elect Cuomo, compared to 40 percent who want someone else, down from 65-26 percent last month.
“Voters appear to be able to compartmentalize how they feel about Cuomo. While their views on him generally – favorability, job performance, re-elect – took a significant hit this month, voters’ views on Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic remain largely positive, except for his handling of nursing home death data,” Greenberg said. “Two-thirds of New Yorkers, including 56 percent of Democrats, give him a negative grade for making public all data about COVID-related deaths of nursing home patients.”
New Yorkers Overwhelming Support Biden’s $1.9T COVID Relief Plan
“The massive $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan passed by Congress and signed by President Biden enjoys overwhelming support from New Yorkers. Overall, 74 percent support the COVID relief plan, compared to only 21 percent who oppose it. It has support from 91 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents, while Republicans are evenly divided, 48-48 percent,” Greenberg said. “The ‘weakest’ support geographically comes from upstate voters, who support it two-to-one, 62-31 percent.”
Biden has a 64-30 percent favorability rating, little changed from 65-29 percent in February. He is viewed favorably by 89 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents, while 72 percent of Republicans view him unfavorably. His job performance rating is 54-41 percent, down slightly from 55-38 percent last month.
“Less than two months on the job, Biden – like his first major legislative victory, the COVID relief plan – enjoys strong support from New Yorkers – well, at least from Democrats and independents,” Greenberg said. “At this point in his presidency, Donald Trump had a 33-63 percent favorability rating, not very different from his current 31-66 percent favorability rating.”
Odds & Ends
- Attorney General Letitia James has a 40-14 percent favorability rating, up from 36-17 percent last month, her highest-ever favorability rating.
- Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul has a 23-14 percent favorability rating (64 percent have never heard of her or don’t know enough to have an opinion), the first time Siena has polled her in a statewide poll.
- New Yorkers are much more optimistic about the pandemic. Currently, 65 percent think the worst of the pandemic is over, compared to 23 percent who say the worst is still to come. Last month it was 46-36 percent.
- Thirty-six percent of voters say they have gotten vaccinated, another 40 percent say they plan to, and 21 percent who do not plan to get the vaccine, down from 25 percent in January and 22 percent last month.
- Support remains strong for legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in New York. Support is currently 59-33 percent, down a little from 63-29 percent last month. It has more than 60 percent support from Democrats and independents, and is supported by Republicans, barely, 51-48 percent.
- Voters continue to say New York State (48-38 percent) and the United states (50-41 percent) are headed in the right direction and not on the wrong track. Both are little changed from last month.
This Siena College Poll was conducted March 8-12, 2021 among 805 New York State registered voters with 430 voters contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode and 375 responses drawn from a proprietary online panel (Lucid) of New Yorkers. Telephone calls were conducted in English and respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest person in the household. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline (ASDE) and cell phone (Dynata) telephone numbers within New York State weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data from both collection modes (phone and web) was merged and statistically adjusted by age, party by region, race/ethnicity, education, and gender to ensure representativeness. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social, and cultural research primarily in NYS. SCRI, 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 crosstabs: www.Siena.edu/SCRI/SNY.
