Poll: Cuomo has 70% approval rating
Photo credit: AP | Andrew Cuomo delivers his State of the State speech. (Jan. 5, 2011)
Andrew CuomoALBANY - Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is enjoying a near record-high approval rating, according to a poll conducted soon after he used his first State of the State address to call for shrinking state government, capping property taxes, easing business taxes and toughening ethics laws.
Cuomo's favorability rating stands at 70 percent - his highest since hitting 71 percent in June 2009 when he was the incumbent attorney general and gubernatorial front-runner - according to a Siena College poll released Monday. That's also up from 64 percent just after the Democrat won election in November.
"After two weeks as governor, Cuomo's honeymoon is in full swing, as he gets strong marks from voters by every measure," said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. "For the first time in more than a year, 70 percent of voters have a favorable view of Cuomo, while only 17 percent view him unfavorably ."
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The survey did not ask about specific ideas Cuomo outlined in his address, which observers said cast him as a centrist Democrat. But among those surveyed, 55 percent said he was a moderate, 25 percent a liberal and 10 percent a conservative. The poll was conducted from Jan. 10-13, included 776 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The one particular issue Siena focused on was Cuomo's decision to return 5 percent of his salary. Not surprisingly, 69 percent of voters said this was a "good example" that would help budget negotiations at time when the state is facing a $10-billion deficit. About 29 percent said Cuomo was "grandstanding."
Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman all remain largely unknown, despite winning elections in November, the poll found.
For Duffy, 18 percent said they had a favorable opinion, 10 percent unfavorable and 72 percent said they had no opinion or didn't know him. DiNapoli enjoyed a 28 percent to 21 percent favorable/unfavorable rating, though 51 percent said they had no opinion or didn't know him. Schneiderman scored 26 percent to 14 percent favorable/unfavorable rating, while 60 percent didn't know him well enough to give an opinion.
Siena also found that while more voters still think New York is on the wrong track, pessimism is down. Fifty percent said the state was headed in the wrong direction while 36 percent said the right direction - a month earlier, it was 60 to 29.
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