State Legislature Still Unpopular
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- December
- 16
Voters continue to have sustained displeasure with the state Legislature: Only 17 percent approve of the job lawmakers are doing, a new Quinnipiac University poll today found.
The approval rating is the lowest for any legislature polled by Quinnipiac, which polls in six states. Voters disapproved 72 percent to 17 percent of the job the State Legislature is doing.
The results were similar to a Quinnipiac poll in August—which had a disapproval rating of 72 percent to 18 percent—after a monthlong coup in the state Senate.
The anti-legislature sentiment in today’s poll was even stronger upstate: 77 percent—81 percent in the struggling upstate cities—disapprove of the Legislature.
As a result, voters were not shocked by the corruption conviction last week of former Senate Republican Leader Joseph Bruno. Sixty percent of voters viewed it as “Albany business as usual.”
Voters said by 76 percent to 19 percent that state government is dysfunctional, and 28 percent blame Democrats, 21 percent blame Republicans, and 17 percent blame Gov. David Paterson.
By a margin of 46 percent to 41 percent, voters said their own state senator should be voted out of office next year when all 62 seats will be up for election.
“It’s a polling cliché that voters don’t like the legislature but do like their legislator. Even that seems to be fraying,” said Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll. “A number of voters would keep their legislator, but a larger number think we ought to completely clean house.”
Sixty-three percent of voters support a state constitutional convention, which would allow voters to change laws on the ballot. Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, has been pushing for the measure and is holding town hall meetings around the state to build support, with two today in the North Country.
“It is time New Yorkers took their state government back – it begins by convening a People’s Convention, which is the first step toward restoring accountability,” Kolb said in a statement.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted Dec. 7 through Dec. 13 to 1,692 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 10:29 am by Joseph Spector.
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