Results tagged “poll”

A new Siena poll reveals that voters are still unhappy with Governor Paterson: His job performance is 19% positive, 79% negative and only 15% of respondents want to re-elect him (72% say there should be someone else). Here's something to think about: Rudy Giuliani is gaining on Andrew Cuomo in a hypothetical 2010 gubernatorial matchup: last month, Cuomo got 52% and Giuilani 39% while this month, it's Cuomo 50% and Giuliani 43%. Giuliani beats Paterson 56% to 33%.

PolitickerNY got an early look at a WABC 7 mayoral election poll conducted by Survey USA: "Bloomberg leads Thompson 51 to 43 percent according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 4.2 percent, and was conducted from October 3 to 5. The poll interviewed 1,000 'adults,' of which 888 were registered voters, and 561 were considered 'likely voters.'"

The latest Quinnipiac poll put Bloomy's approval ratings at 69%, and holding a strong 52-36 lead over the Democrat William Thompson. In an interview with Gothamist, asked what it would take to unseat the billionaire, former DNC chair Howard Dean replied, "Term limits."

Today's not so shocking poll numbers: Quinnipiac says that 77% of NY State voters say that the NY State government is "dysfunctional" while 58% say it's "the worst" or "among the worst" in the nation. Oddly enough, 2% of respondents say that it's the "best" in the country, while 28% think it's "among the best"—maybe those people are from Illinois or California. Some more stats: "Voters disapprove 72 - 18 percent of the way the State Legislature is handling its job, the legislature's lowest overall score ever. Forty-nine percent of New York State voters say that almost everyone in the State Senate - including their own." Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll said, "Dysfunctional is practically a synonym for the New York State Legislature and voters want a change. While voters tend to like their own legislators, almost half of New Yorkers are ready to throw out their own state senator in a general house-cleaning." Take heart, challengers.

A new Quinnipiac poll shows that City Comptroller Bill Thompson, the likely Democratic candidate for mayor, has erased some of the gap between himself and Mayor Bloomberg: PolitickerNY reports, "Thompson trails Bloomberg 47 to 37 among city voters, compared to the 54-to-32 spread in Quinnipiac’s June 16 poll," also noting that Bloomberg was ID'd for the first time as a "Republican and independent." Howard Wolfson, spokesman for Bloomberg's campaign, said, “This shows that when you change the wording of any poll, no matter how good, you get a different result. The fact is NYers know that Mike Bloomberg is an independent who governs in a nonpartisan way, which is why roughly two thirds of New Yorkers consistently approve of his job performance and why he has double digit leads over both of his opponents," while Thompson campaign spokeswoman Carly Lindauer said, "Mike Bloomberg has spent nearly $40 million to see his poll numbers decline. It’s clear that after eight years of a Republican mayor who’s been focused on those at the top, New Yorkers want change in City Hall."

A new poll from the Siena Research Institute reveals the unsurprising news: 77% of registered voters don't think the State Senate passed any new legislation and think "the senators wasted more than a month of valuable time accomplishing nothing." (Here's the PDF.) Siena's Steven Greenberg said, “Voters from every party and every region overwhelmingly reject the notion that it was good that Senators took the time to resolve their differences. Rather, there is real anger at senators - regardless of the voters‟ party affiliation or region. Although voters have long demonstrated particularly short memories, most feel that their fellow voters will remember the Senate fight next November and a plurality are already prepared to vote out incumbent senators.” Greenberg added, "Most voters in the state have an opinion about Senator Pedro Espada - and by a better than four-to-one margin it's an unfavorable opinion. Additionally, 21 percent of voters, a plurality, think Sen. Espada is most to blame for the Senate fight, followed by Senate Republicans (18%), Senate Democrats (15%) and Governor Paterson (12%)."

A new Quinnipiac poll about the 2009 mayoral race finds, "Mayor Michael Bloomberg tops City Comptroller William Thompson, his chief Democratic challenger, 54 - 32 percent among New York City voters, who also say 62 - 28 percent that they'd rather chat with the Mayor at a July 4th picnic, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Even black voters would rather picnic with Bloomberg 52 - 37 percent." Some other interesting tidbits: Bloomberg has a 66% approval rating (up from 64% in March), but 56% of respondents think his campaign spending is "overkill" while 50% don't (vs. 42% who do) think Bloomberg is "out of touch" for saying Obama doesn't get paid much. Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll said, "This latest survey shows the challenges Comptroller William Thompson faces as he tries to portray Mayor Michael Bloomberg as unlikable and out of touch, and as he tries to build a base of black voters. Black, white and Hispanic voters all would sooner share a July 4th hot dog and a beer with Mayor Mike than with Bill Thompson." Ah, the hot dog and beer mayoral test.

A NY1/NY Times/Cornell University poll found that while voters think Mayor Bloomberg is fine, they're happy to vote for someone this fall. NY1 reports, "The poll shows that while 60 percent of New Yorkers approve of Bloomberg's job performance, 55 percent say the want "someone else" in City Hall next year."

A survey of all 62 state Senators shows that a pending same-sex marriage bill faces tough odds of passing if brought to the floor for a vote. Majority Leader Malcolm Smith says he won't do that unless he's certain it has the 32 votes needed for passage, and the survey, conducted by NY1, would seem to contradict the bill's primary sponsor, Thomas Duane, who has optimistically predicted "there are enough votes for it to pass and a cushion." Reverend Jason McGuire of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms tells NY1, "We're very confident in the fact that this bill is quickly going to crash and burn."

The latest Siena Research Institute poll shows that Governor Paterson's approval rating has one point from 19 points to 18 points. PolitickerNY notes, "The biggest reasons [for his poor approval ratings] were his handling of the state budget"—you know, in secret with Sheldon Silver and Malcolm Smith—"and approving pay raises for staffers. Two thirds of voters surveyed cited that Paterson 'has shown he's just not up to the job of being our governor' as contributing to the popularity decline." More dismal numbers: Paterson is viewed unfavorably by 63% of NY voters polled (favorably by 27%) and only 12% would want him in 2010 (vs. 71% who want someone else). On the upside, 53% of voters think gay marriage should pass (vs. 39% who don't)—gay marriage is Paterson's new pet issue.

When asked about a recent poll revealing that New Yorkers find him "cold and businesslike," Mayor Bloomberg essentially threw up his hands and said (literally), "I am what I am." While declaring that he's not "big on psychoanalysis," Bloomberg stated, "I'm going to call 'em like I see 'em, and I will say I don't get any sense on the street of people being any less friendly than they've always been." Bloomberg apparently spends so much time on the streets that he also didn't seem shocked that New Yorkers didn't find him "warm and friendly." He said, "I don’t find anything warm and fuzzy about the potential of people losing their jobs, or losing their homes. I don’t find anything warm and fuzzy about city government having to reduce expenses and find alternative revenue sources. That’s the job, and that’s what I’m going to do." But as much as might downplay his cuddly "Mayor Mike" side, Politicker NY finds that his latest full page newspaper ads are quick to show him as a regular guy New Yorkers can sit and share a cup of coffee with.

Governor Paterson doesn't seem to be taking quite the shellacking he was receiving from the media a month ago, but his poll numbers continue to bottom out. The latest poll released today by Siena College shows the public's approval of the governor's job performance now below twenty percent.

A new Marist poll has some bad news for Governor Paterson: His approval rating has dropped 20 points in since Marist's late January poll. Marist also notes: "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." And even among registered Democrats, only 30% think he's doing an above average job (65% disagree—heck, even elected Democrats who think he's a nice human being are upset). Still, " 77% of New Yorkers believe he is working hard as governor, and 62% say Paterson understands the problems of New Yorkers." Marist's pollster Lee Miringoff told CityRoom, "You’re dealing with a bad economy, low scores on his handling of the budget, a messy Senate pick, a lot of TV ads about cutbacks, and a drop in his leadership numbers such that there’s a lot of erosion at the core, not just at the edges." As for hypothetical 2010 matchups, Rudy Giuliani would beat him, while Andrew Cuomo would beat Giuliani.

A recently-released survey found that while NYC residents admit they enjoy a drink or two to unwind, they may be in denial about their weight problems. According to the Post, a Siena Research Institute survey found that of the New Yorkers who say they drink alcohol, 45 percent estimate they have one or two drinks in a week. On the other end of the spectrum, 12 percent admit they knock back over 15 drinks every week. (Is that a lot?) And 41 percent of New Yorkers admit they're fat, but 2007 federal statistics tell a different story, estimating that 56 percent of NYC residents are overweight. Poll organizer Dr. Don Levy pins the discrepancy New Yorkers' refusal to face the truth about their disgusting fat-bodies: "It's one thing to lie to me. It's another thing to lie to yourself." As for the drinking habits, the survey says upstate New Yorkers actually drink more than city folk, which doesn't surprise snob on the street David Dutkanicz, who tells the Post, "I agree with those numbers. People have more to do here than drink. Whenever I'm in upstate New York, I see more drunken and sloppy behavior."

The Siena Research Institute says that NY voters aren't very happy with Governor David Paterson. In the latest Siena New York Poll, 40% of respondents view the Governor favorably—while 47% view him unfavorably. This is "down from last month’s 54-30 percent favorable rating, and his high of 64-19 percent in November."

A new Quinnipiac poll has more bad news for embattled Governor Paterson. Not only has his approval rating fallen seven points to 41%, if Paterson were to run against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Cuomo would win, 53-25. Politicker NY runs through some other details: "Rudy Giuliani's favorability rating, however, stands at 56 percent. In a hypothetical matchup for governor, Giuliani ties Paterson 43 to 43. Cuomo would win a race against Giuliani 51 to 37, the poll found." Of course, there's still almost 18 months till the primary—anything can happen. But if Cuomo's appearances are anything like this one, he is eyeing his dad's old job.

A new NY1 poll shows that most voters aren't that happy with the term limits extension—and almost half of the respondents think less of Mayor Bloomberg as a result! Fifty-seven percent were opposed to the term limits extension (37% were for it), and now 46% think less of Bloomberg, due to his handling of the matter. But 13% think and 35% say Bloomberg's term limits extension angling has no effect on how they view him. NY1's pollster, Baruch College's Mickey Blum, said, referring to how the top issue on respondents' minds is the economy (41%), "[Term limits] has made them think somewhat less of the mayor. On the other hand, it's not the most important issue." Also interesting: 59% think the city's new stadium deals with the Yankees and Mets are terrible (14% approve while 27% didn't have an opinion). A Quinnipiac poll found that Bloomberg's approval rating in 69%, which is pretty high.

A new poll released is showing that—surprise, surprise—New Yorkers have soured on Caroline Kennedy since she began making her presence felt. Almost half say that their opinion of her has worsened over the last month. And while Caroline once had twenty percent more support to replace Hillary Clinton than the next most likely choice Andrew Cuomo, now that figure has flipped and Cuomo is favored by twenty percent more of state Democrats than the one-time first daughter. The New Yorker suggests that all of her "you knows" might be a desperate plea to connect with people and that maybe what she needs to regroup is a listening tour.

Did you hear? The office party's been cut from the budget, according to a poll by FreshDirect & BizBash. This means that drunken coworker makeout, drunken coworker karaoke, and drunken telling your boss off will also be down to an all time low. Just how low? More than 65% of New York businesses are eliminating or scaling back on holiday parties this year, according to the survey of more than 200 event professionals in New York City. Of course, FreshDirect also has a solution to the problem: use their "At The Office" service to cut down on costs and party it up in your cubicles! Last month a catering company told ABC News that the drop-off in business is the worst it's been since post-9/11 2001. Oh well, take a break and watch a clip from The Office's season 3 Christmas special.

There's a new Siena poll (PDF) that covers NY State's budget gap: "When given a choice of five areas for the state to cut, 23 percent chose aid to local government, 18 percent transportation/infrastructure, seven percent education, six percent health care and the winner was 44 percent for ‘something else,'" which Politicker NY points out "those top-two vote-getters for spending cuts: they run counter to the governor and mayor’s priorities." But hey, the poll's respondents prefer spending cuts to raising taxes, so it's sort of all the same, right?

The people at Crumbs are giving away 1,000 free cupcakes today at each of their locations (and free cupcakes all day Friday). Following Zaro's lead--they're using baked goods to conduct a delicious poll. They tell us there will be an “official count posted...and while it won’t be a scientific poll, it should shed some interesting light on neighborhood leanings."

The polls open at 6 a.m. statewide tomorrow, and given the recent concern about whether the NYC Board of Elections is prepared for an anticipated massive voter turnout, you might want to consider voting early. Polls close at 9 p.m., and you can check your voting location here or by calling 1-866-VOTE-NYC. In New Jersey, polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m; you can look up your polling place here. Polls in Connecticut are also open during the same hours as Jersey.

The Siena Research Institute says Barack Obama's lead in NY has grown to 62% over John McCain's 31%. As it happens, Siena also reported last month that Obama's lead over McCain was just 5 points. The poll also found the nearly eight in 10 New York residents agree with Governor Paterson that the economy is as bad at the Great Depression. In other political news, the ATF reports that it stopped a skinhead plot to kill Obama and other blacks, some doofus has a Sarah Palin effigy outside a house in Los Angeles, every day is voting day with early voting and radio ads has made a comeback thanks to campaign ads, which have also lined the pockets of local and network TV shows.

The health department says the number of violations for smoking inside bars and restaurants jumped by a third in the past year, following an increase in inspectors conducting checks as late as 4 a.m., when barkeeps are more inclined to let drinkers light up. The number of smoking citations issued to bars and restaurants increased to 917 in the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2008, compared to 694 in the previous year. The fines range from $200 to $2,000.

A new AP-GfK poll says John McCain and Barack Obama are "essentially running even among likely voters... The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's 'Joe the plumber' analogy struck a chord." An AP-GfK poll from three week earlier gave Obama a 7 point lead. Other polls have Obama leading by many more points--a University of Wisconsin poli sci professor explains that the poll differences are due to the randomness of respondents, "If they all agree, somebody would be doing something terribly wrong," but added the wide variation means "there's something to explain." Well, we'll only know for sure after November 4. FiveThirtyEight.com has been keeping track of polls--both national and statewide--to project what will happen in 13 days.

The Zaro's in Grand Central Terminal has whipped up a political pastry whose sales are turning into an unscientific (but delicious) poll; their black & white cookies can now be purchased with the faces of the four candidates on them. That's right, all you Joe Six-packs out there can now sink your teeth into the former Miss Alaska hopeful, gosh darnit.

Empire State residents are feeling the pinch of the slowing economy as a Siena Research Institute poll finds 34% of respondents have either taken a second job or seek overtime. Two thirds are worrying more about money and 74% say rising food prices are affecting their budgets ("67% of shoppers are buying less expensive items, 60% have cut back on treats like cookies or candy in favor of needed items, and 60% are choosing store brands or generic items over name brands"). Researchers believe many are trying to save money for winter heating bills, as 80% are worried about the winter weather. SRI Director Dr. Don Levy said, "Even though more New Yorkers expect the economy to decline than to improve over the next twelve months, by a margin of 49% to 32%, residents think their personal situation will improve.” [Image via Worth1000]

The third and final day of Summer Streets was Saturday, and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan tells the Times, “I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews. When I was along the route, most people I talked to wanted it done every weekend in the summer.” But as previously noted, some retailers complained about losing business during the five hours that streets were closed to motor vehicles – particularly "destination" shops like T. Anthony Ltd., a luxury luggage store on Park Avenue. Owner Jack Weiss theorizes that, “If someone is coming to buy luggage, they’re generally going to bring a car.”

                      

Well, that's that. McCarren Pool – the giant Robert Moses-era landmark that's been revived as a music, theater, dance and film venue after decades of neglect – hosted its last free 'pool party' yesterday. The Bloomberg administration has allocated $50 million to renovate the pool for swimming, restore the historic bathhouse building, and build a year-round recreation center that is to include a skate park and an ice rink.

What a different five years makes: The NY Times shares some interesting data on how Mayor Bloomberg has convinced low-earning New Yorkers he cares about them.