Albany stinks – you’re no exception
Poll: N.Y.ers say boot whole corrupt bunch, including gov
THROW THE bums out!
A new poll out Wednesday shows that New Yorkers are fed up with corruption in Albany and believe the state should simply start with a clean slate of lawmakers.
A whopping 55% of those surveyed in a Quinnipiac University poll said “all elected officials” in Albany should be voted out of office so a group of uncorrupted, fresh faces can take over.
Only 28% disagreed and said that the current crowd is capable of ending political corruption in Albany.
“Can Albany fix itself? A lot of New Yorkers don’t think so,” said Maurice Carroll, Quinnipiac poll assistant director.
A 52% chunk of respondents said that Gov. Cuomo — whose job approval rating hit a personal all-time low — “is part of the problem, not the solution.”
“There have been no charges of corruption leveled against the governor or anyone in his administration, but when the stench gets this bad, everyone starts to smell,” Carroll said.
Cuomo, during an event on Long Island, claimed not to have seen the poll results.
Several lawmakers said they understand why the public is frustrated after seeing two legislative leaders — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) — indicted this year within weeks of each other.
Silver and Skelos gave up their leadership posts.
“It’s a human cesspool,” Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell (D-Manhattan) said of Albany.
But O’Donnell said the public shares a part of the blame.
“We don’t elect the people,” he said. “We can only deal with the people who are sent here to us.”
Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), like O’Donnell, expressed frustration that all lawmakers are being tarred by the actions of a few.
“The public has a right to be frustrated and hold their elected officials accountable,” Lentol said. “The only thing I would object to is they paint everyone with the same brush.”
The poll points to a possible solution. Four of five voters would like to see more power put in the hands of rank-and-file lawmakers instead of legislative leaders, the survey found.
“If democracy ruled in the state Legislature, most New Yorkers think it would help curb misbehavior,” Carroll said.
Meanwhile, the Quinnipiac poll is the third recent independent survey that found Cuomo’s job approval rating has tanked.
Only 44% of those polled by Quinnipiac said that they approved of the job Cuomo was doing as governor — his lowest ratings ever in a Quinnipiac poll since he took office — compared with 42% who said they did not approve.
A Quinnipiac poll in March showed Cuomo's approval rating at 50% and his disapproval rating at 39%.
But Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the crusading federal prosecutor who brought charges against Skelos and Silver, got high marks.
Only 5% of those polled said he had “gone too far” investigating corruption in state government, while 36% said he hasn't “gone far enough.”
Another 32% said he has so far handled his corruption investigations “about right.”
While voters want to throw the bums out and 60% disapprove of the job the Legislature as a whole is doing, they still like the job their local lawmaker is doing by a 44%-to-37% margin in the Assembly and a 54%-to-31% margin in the Senate.