Cuomo favorability, job performance ratings at record highs
Cayla Harris
April 27, 2020
ALBANY – As Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo continues to lead the state through the coronavirus pandemic, his job performance rating is at an all-time high of 71 percent, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll released Monday.
The rating is a stark contrast from two months ago, when just 36 percent of New Yorkers approved of his performance. The governor also has a 77 percent favorability rating – a figure he only once a month after he was first inaugurated as governor in 2011.
The uptick in his popularity is largely linked to his response to the state and national crisis. The public overwhelmingly backs Cuomo's decision to extend New York's stay-at-home order until mid-May, as well as his mandate to wear face masks in public. Both executive orders had support from about nine in 10 New Yorkers.
“Mired in middling poll numbers for the last two years, Cuomo is feeling the love from New Yorkers of all stripes in year three of his third term, and his first global pandemic," Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a release. "He is viewed favorably by 90 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans, his first time favorable with Republicans in more than six years."
But while New Yorkers trust Cuomo to make decisions about reopening the economy – more so than President Donald Trump, by a 78-16 percent margin – they are still anxious about the pandemic and do not see a return to normality in the near future. More than half of those polled said they know someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and about a third say they know someone who has died – though the numbers are far higher in New York City than in upstate.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they are "not confident America will be back to normal anytime soon," compared to 43 percent who said they anticipate a return to normal in the near future. About two-thirds of voters said they believe it is unlikely that large public gatherings, including concerts and sporting events, will take place in the summer – and even if those gatherings did resume, seven in 10 New Yorkers said they probably wouldn't attend.
The individual impact of the pandemic has also been crushing, with 19 percent of respondents saying they were laid off and another 13 percent reporting that a person in their household had lost their job. Nearly half of New Yorkers are working from home and/or live with someone who is working from home.
A little more than a third of respondents said they have received a stimulus check from the federal government.
“To say the coronavirus has had a tremendously detrimental effect on New York’s workforce – upstate and downstate – is a gross understatement," Greenberg said.
Separately, respondents favored former Vice President Joe Biden over Trump in the race for the White House, 65-29, though about 45 percent of New Yorkers believe the president will be re-elected.
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Siena-poll-Cuomo-s-favorability-job-performance-15227450.php
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