Marist Poll: Paterson Plunges 20 Points In One Month

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 03, 2009 at 13:39:24 PM EST

Freefall!  Governor Paterson's Approval Rating Plummets 20 Percentage Points...Lands at 26%: 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.

I was speaking with a pretty well connected insider the other day and we both came to roughly the same conclusion about the Governor's slide. While their is still time on the clock and these numbers could conceivably be turned around in that span, I don't have much confidence in this Governor or the folks he's surrounded himself with actually being able to pull that off. I and my friend could be wrong, but we don't currently see any significant reason to believe so.