New Yorkers know how to hold a grudge. Public outrage over the political shenanigans that dominated the state Senate over the summer has not died down in the months since the stalemate ended, according to a new poll.
In fact, voters are just as mad as they were in June. Seventy percent of registered voters say they're angry about the situation in the Senate, the Marist poll finds. Those numbers haven't changed much since the same question was asked of registered voters in June.
Not surprisingly, New Yorkers' frustration translated into low job approval ratings for the Senate. More than half of registered voters in the state consider the Senate's performance to be sub par, to say the least.
Less than 15 percent of those polled say the legislative body is doing either an excellent or good job, the poll found. And a Marist poll released a few months ago found that nearly half of voters wanted state senators, including their own, out of a job come Election Day 2010.
New Yorkers want some housecleaning in state government; nearly 70 percent of registered voters thinks the current processes need to be changed. But they're unsure of how to go about implementing it. Forty-eight percent of voters oppose the establishment of a constitutional convention to propose changes, while only 42 percent support it.
Even though the summer infighting was contained to the senate, the Assembly is feeling some of the backlash. Forty-nine percent of the electorate say the Assembly is performing poorly, compared with 51 percent who said so earlier this summer – a drop in approval that may have some assembly members saying, "Hey, what did we do?"
Guilty by association, perhaps?
