Paterson is toast, part II

This time the news comes from Marist:

New Yorkers are sending a strong message to Governor David Paterson, “Shape Up!”  Just 26% of registered voters report the governor is doing either an excellent or good job in office.  That’s a drop of 20 percentage points since the Marist Poll last asked this question at the end of January.  In fact, Governor Paterson’s approval rating is the lowest approval rating a New York State governor has received in the Marist Poll’s nearly thirty year history of statewide surveys.  Has the governor lost favor within his own party?  Here’s the party breakdown.  Among registered Democrats in New York State, 30% think Paterson is doing an above average job while 65% disagree.  Across the aisle, Republicans also overwhelmingly disapprove of Paterson’s performance.  Just 26% of members of New York’s GOP approve of the job Paterson is doing as governor while 72% think he is doing a fair or poor job.  Only 20% of non-enrolled voters agree that Paterson is doing well in the position.  Opinions across the state are consistently low.  24% of upstate voters approve of the job Paterson is doing as governor.  26% of suburban voters say he is doing an above average job, and 30% of New York City voters share this position.

The poll isn’t all doom and gloom: Schumer is as popular as ever, and Gillibrand seems set to be reelected. But my bottom line is this,  if Democrats don’t find a new Gubernatorial candidate, we will very likely lose the office.

17 thoughts on “Paterson is toast, part II”

  1. What a fall.  He had such promise too.  As much as I dislike Cuomo, I guess I hope he runs, or Suozzi who I would prefer.  If Cuomo does run do we have anyone for AG?

  2. Wow, his approval rating has skyrocketed.  The prior Marist poll in October 2008 had him at 50% Excellent/Good, but this one has him at 71% Excellent/Good.  What has he done in the last 5 months?

  3. …he’s just presented a budget with large cuts as well as tax increases due to the economy imploding and New York State being particularly affected by the stock market crash.  A lot of governors are seeing their popularity plummet.  The choices they are making are not popular.

    Add to this that the Caroline Kennedy thing didn’t make him look again as people turned against her and blaimed him.  That I’d partly blame on the media since the way they covered people literally saw it as an election rather than an appointment.  It was surreal but also partly Patterson’s fault for being too cute and too public in his selection process.

    Cuomo is helped by what he has always been helped by.  His last name is Cuomo and people have fond memories of Cuomo.  And it didn’t hurt that he was once married to a Kennedy.  He’s trying to be Spitzer light to get some publicity over stuff he’s prosecuting.  Just unlike Spitzer his investigations are mostly smoke and mirrors.

    Of course given Spitzer got himself elected Governor by an almost ludicrous margin I guess not a bad strategy to take.

    Patterson’s weakness now will make it far more likely someone will run and do the necessary fundraising to run on both the Democratic and Republican side since political planning for such a run is starting now. However what we don’t know is how he’ll fair once the worst of the financial crisis is over.  And if it’s not.  God help Democrats everywhere.

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