Poll: Cuomo’s favorability rating at lowest level as gov.
LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. » Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s favorability rating fell to its lowest level ever, according to a new Siena College poll of New York State registered voters.
According to the survey, Cuomo’s rating fell to 49 percent favorability to 44 percent who view him negatively. It matches his lowest level as governor, which previously occurred in July 2015.
Since January, when he enjoyed the best favorability rating of his second term -- 62 percent to 30 percent -- Cuomo’s favorability rating has dropped 27 points.
However, the governor still maintains a strong lead over Cynthia Nixon, an activist actress challenging Cuomo in this year’s Democratic primary. Among Democrats, Cuomo has a 62 percent to 32 percent favorability, compared to 33 percent to 23 percent for Cynthia Nixon. Head to head, Cuomo leads Nixon among registered Democrats 58 percent to 27 percent, down from 66 percent to 19 percent last month, before Nixon declared her candidacy. He maintains large leads over Republican challenger Marc Molinaro and John DeFrancisco.
“Since the last Siena College poll, Nixon declared her candidacy, Senate Democrats promised kumbaya, there was public debate over the definition of ‘qualified lesbian,’ and Nixon appears to have secured the Working Families Party line for November,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
“The race has just started and there’s still five months to go. In a variation of Bette Davis’ famous line: fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Four years ago, Cuomo won a Democratic primary – in which only 11 percent of Democrats voted – with 63 percent of the vote, beating Zephyr Teachout by 29 points. Early in this primary race, Cuomo has a 3-1 lead in New York City, where more than half of Democratic primary votes traditionally come from, a 2-1 lead in the downstate suburbs and a narrower 48 percent to 37 percent lead upstate, which is slightly lower than his 15-point upstate margin of victory over Teachout four years ago.
According to the survey, Cuomo leads Nixon by 25 points with men and 37 points with women. He leads by 23 points among white Democrats and more than double that with both black and Latino Democrats.
“Early on, Cuomo seems to be in a strong position to again be the Democratic Party’s standard bearer, however, Nixon has narrowed the deficit more than a little in the last month and the campaigns are just gearing up,” Greenberg said.
Molinaro and DeFrancisco each remain unknown to three-quarters of voters. More than half of registered Republicans say they don’t know who they would support in a primary between the two. Cuomo leads Molinaro 57 percent to 31 percent, little changed from 57 percent to 29 percent last month. He leads DeFrancisco 56 percent to 32 percent, down a little from 57 percent to 28 percent last month.
In an April 2014 Siena College poll, Cuomo led Rob Astorino 58 percent to 28 percent – comparable to his leads over both of this year’s potential Republican opponents – before moving on to a narrower 54 percent to 40 percent win over Astorino.
“While minor party candidates garnered 5 percent of the vote four years ago, the likelihood of that growing significantly increased dramatically with the emergence of Nixon as the likely WFP nominee,” Greenberg said.
The Siena College poll was conducted April 8 to 12 by telephone calls conducted in English to 692 New York state registered voters.