Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 38
Many New York voters like Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to pause a planned toll on certain Manhattan drivers, according to public polling. They like her new law cracking down on social media platforms. And they like her push to ban cell phones in schools.
They’re far less enthusiastic about the governor herself.
A Siena College poll showed just 34% of likely New York voters view her favorably, making her less popular among New Yorkers than Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who received 39% favorability in the deep-blue state.
At the same time, polls have shown that wide swaths of New York voters support Hochul’s major policies — a schism that pollsters and political consultants say points to the governor’s continued struggle to sell herself to the general public.
“She’s having a hard time getting her message out there, and a lot of that is because people are still getting to know her,” said Lupe Todd-Medina, a Democratic consultant who worked on Hochul’s 2022 campaign.
Hochul’s poll numbers are abysmal for a Democratic governor in New York, a state where no Republican has won statewide office since Gov. George Pataki was elected to a third term in 2002.
Her favorability rating is the lowest for a New York governor since 2010, when then-Gov. David Paterson ping-ponged between the low-20s and low-30s amid an economic crisis and personal scandals. Her rating is also lower than Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s was in the months leading up to his resignation amid multiple scandals of his own. Cuomo, who was Hochul’s immediate predecessor, bottomed out at 40% in April 2021.
But many times in recent months, voters have responded positively to policy positions Hochul has championed, according to Siena’s monthly poll of the state.
That includes Hochul’s abrupt pause on the $15 base congestion pricing toll, which was set to take effect in June and apply to drivers below 60th Street in Manhattan. That month, Siena’s poll found 45% of voters supported the pause, compared to 23% who opposed it. That same poll showed 70% of voters supported a Hochul-backed measure to eventually ban social media platforms from using addictive, algorithm-based feeds on teenagers and children without parental consent.
In August, 60% of voters polled by Siena said they supported banning smartphones in schools, a priority of Hochul’s. She has also been a major supporter of abortion rights, which always polls well in New York.
Hochul’s critics on both the political right and left say she deserves blame for the disconnect.
Source: Gothamist
