| Nobody comes out of the budget battles unscathed and the legislature as a whole is about as popular as foot fungus. It should be mentioned however, taht though it is still within the MOE, Bruno's rather anemic 27% approval rating is actually two points better than he did in February.
Voters give legislative leaders very low marks, a split 30 - 30 percent approval for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and a negative 27 - 34 percent for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. The State Legislature gets a negative 34 - 43 percent score.
Spitzer allowed the Legislature to put too much spending back in the budget, 33 percent of voters say, while 30 percent say the Governor reached a fair compromise.
... Other legislators are more involved in the budget process, 36 percent of New York State voters say, while 32 percent say the practice continues of "three men in a room" making all the decisions.
"Remember how, during the campaign for governor, we heard that Albany's infamous 'rule of three' would end? A lot of New Yorkers think it's still in place," Carroll said.
As for the Steamroller's hit, it appears that the massive ad campaign against his health care reforms definitely had an impact. Voters approve of his handling of the budget, but not so much his handling of health care. This is interesting given that 72% of voters had seen the ads, yet only 39% believed them to be truthful.
Voters approve 45 - 30 percent of the way Spitzer is handling the state budget, but disapprove 46 - 31 percent of the way he is handling health care.
Of the 81 percent of voters who heard at least a little about Spitzer's proposed restructuring of health care funding, 39 percent oppose it while 36 percent support it.
And voters say 64 - 28 percent that proposed cuts or freezes in health care spending will endanger the quality of health care.
Ads attacking Spitzer's health care proposals were seen by 72 percent of New Yorker State voters, but only 39 percent of that group believe the ads, while 46 percent say the ads misrepresent the issue.
Voters also saw (truthfully, IMHO) Bruno as carrying water for health care lobbyists rather than taking a principled stand "protecting" health care.
And voters say 39 - 26 percent that Sen. Bruno was catering to hospital lobbyists rather than trying to protect health care when he challenged Spitzer on the budget cuts.
There's all sorts of interesting numbers there. Happy hunting! |
