Siena poll: Voters not happy with presidential candidates

PHOTOGRAPHER: The New York Times

Hillary Clinton, left, and Donald Trump.

When New Yorkers go to the polls in November and vote for president, more than half of them may be wishing there was someone else on the ballot.

While Democrat Hillary Clinton is the clear choice for New Yorkers, according to the Siena Research Institute poll released Monday morning, her favorability rating remains in negative numbers, 46-51 percent. Fortunately for the Democrats, the numbers for Republican candidate Donald Trump are even worse at 27-68 percent. Clinton’s lead over Trump among likely New York voters is 52-31 percent.

“Clinton’s lead among Democrats matches Trump’s lead among Republicans, however, Clinton has a nine-point lead with independents, and in a state with a two-to-one Democratic enrollment edge, Clinton is able to easily maintain a comfortable 21-point lead,” Siena’s Steve Greenberg said in press release. “While the candidates are nearly tied upstate, Clinton has a 12-point lead in the downstate suburbs and an overwhelming 46-point lead in New York City. Her favorability rating may be under water by five points, but it’s far better than his, which is under water by 41 points.”

Trump did narrow Clinton’s lead from 26 points four weeks ago to 21 points. His negative favorability rating did improve by one percentage point, while Clinton’s went down two points.

“She can’t lose in New York,” WAMC president Alan Chartock said of Clinton. “Her lead is insurmountable. But what’s interesting to me is the rise of these two third parties, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party, and that could give people a place to go nationally. The Libertarians have two governors running, not some outsider, and the Green Party has Jill Stein. If they can pull enough votes away from the top two candidates the election can go into the House and there the Republicans win. It’s going to depend on who is disliked more.”

The Siena Poll was conducted by phone, May 22-26, and included 825 registered New York voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.

Clinton enjoyed a 67-31 favorability rating among Democrats, while Trump’s numbers among Republicans were 62-34 percent.

The Siena Poll also asked the question: “How would you rate the job that Andrew Cuomo is doing as governor? Would you rate it as excellent, good, fair or poor?” Only 8 percent of New Yorkers said excellent. The other numbers were 34 percent for good, 39 percent for fair and 19 percent for poor. Also, only 42 percent of New Yorkers overall said they would vote for Cuomo in two years should he run for re-election.

“The numbers on Cuomo are just fascinating,” said Chartock. “I talk to a lot of people, and he’s done some good things for the state, but when I ask them if they like him, they find it very hard to like the guy. The problem is for those who want Cuomo out of there is, ‘who is that someone else?’ and I don’t see them. The Republicans aren’t going to win with guys like Carl Paladino or Rob Astorino. Of course, when Papa Cuomo ran against George Pataki I said there was no way Pataki would beat him. Boy, was I wrong in that case.”

The pollsters also asked about allowing daily fantasy sports companies to operate in New York City, getting a 45-37 percent in favor from the respondents. Corruption in New York was also addressed by the poll.

“A near-unanimous 96 percent of New Yorkers continues to say passing anti-corruption legislation is important, with 81 percent saying it’s very important,” said Greenberg. “A plurality of 31 percent say it should be the top end of session priority for the governor and Legislature. By a wide margin, Democrats and independents say corruption is a more serious problem in the Legislature, while by a narrow margin, Republicans say it’s more serious in the offices and agencies controlled by the governor.”

Reach Gazette reporter Bill Buell at 395-3190 or [email protected]