Since she was appointed in January 2009, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's approval ratings in the Marist College poll have never exceeded her disapproval ratings.
Until this month.
The poll conducted last week found 49 percent of respondents rating the job Gillibrand is doing as excellent/good, with 39 percent going with fair/poor.
The last poll Marist did about Gillibrand, the week before her easy election last November, found excellent/good at 36, and fair/poor at 48. That was the highest approval number in the Marist poll ever, before now.
More, below. |
| Though Gillibrand is a tick below the magic 50 for incumbents, she did quite well in her first statewide election, winning with 63 percent of the vote when her approval numbers were in the mid-30s.
Since then, her statewide (and national) profile has risen substantially, due to her successful work on DADT repeal and the 9/11 responders health bill and her moving story about being at Gabrielle Giffords' bedside when her eyes opened.
Media coverage of all that certainly affected the 13 percent increase in Gillibrand's Marist approval numbers.
This diary has NY-Sen in the headline because Gillibrand will be running for a full six-year term in 2012, and that campaign has already begun.
There are no announced opponents yet, but some of the D-list possibles (Joe DioGuardi, who Gillibrand beat in 2010, David Malpass, who lost to DioGuardi in the GOP primary, Jay Townshend, who got creamed by Chuck Schumer last year, Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor and serial health care liar, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, and the six new NY Republican Members of Congress) will be speaking and working the room at the state Conservative Party's winter conference this weekend.
The alleged GOP A-listers -- Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki -- will be no more interested in challenging Gillibrand, or in being a Senator, than they were last year.
Right now, Gillibrand looks like a cinch for re-election, but that can change, especially in a post-Citizens United world.
If you too approve of the job Gillibrand is doing, please help her out here in whatever way you can. |
