“You’re approved”
New Yorkers overwhelmingly approve of Governor Andrew Cuomo according to a recent state-wide poll. Sixty-four percent of New Yorkers – 67 percent in New York City – approve of the job Cuomo has done in his first six months in office and believe he has made the state a better place to live, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters throughout the state.
New York voters were polled on Cuomo, the president, local government officials and a bevy of new laws just passed in the state legislature.
Cuomo’s approval crosses the aisle with over half of Republicans thinking the Democratic governor has acceptably handled the job. It is not just his politics that New Yorkers are swooning over – two-thirds of voters throughout the state admire the governor as a person.
The poll was conducted during the lead up to and following the passing of the marriage equality act that Cuomo introduced, a bill that 54 percent of New Yorkers support – 60 percent within the five boroughs.
Support for the new law is highest among the under 35 crowd, where 70 percent favor same-sex marriage. Fifty-seven percent of New Yorkers over 65 opposed the bill.
While the bill passed with added protections for religious organizations, voters were split on whether religious leaders will now feel pressure to perform same-sex marriages. Opposition from religious leaders did not sway voters though, with 70 percent saying it did not affect their attitudes towards same-sex marriage.
Sixty-seven percent of Democrats supported the bill while 63 percent of Republicans were opposed. Marriage equality in the state has been building over the past seven years when just 37 percent of New Yorkers were in support of same-sex marriage.
New Yorkers approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing and feel he deserves to be re-elected with more than half saying they would vote for him in 2012 over the Republican candidate.
Throughout the state local state representative were given positive ratings, as were U.S. Senators Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, but New Yorkers disapprove of the job of the overall state legislature, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
New Yorkers were also polled on how new district lines should be drawn up, rent regulation and restrictions on texting and driving.
Forty-two percent of voters think a commission with no ties to the legislature should draw up new district lines, sixty-two percent support rent regulations and an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers – 94 percent – believe banning texting while driving is a good idea.
