ALBANY, New York, — New Yorkers have soured on the state’s two top Democratic leaders, a Marist College poll on Tuesday found.
Among New York City voters, 37 percent approved of the job Eric Adams has done as mayor while 54 percent disapproved. That’s a long way from a Marist survey in March 2022, just a few months into his term, when he polled favorably 61 percent to 24 percent.
On Adams’ interactions with Turkey that are part of a federal campaign-finance investigation, more than seven in ten New York City residents thought he did something wrong during his 2021 campaign.
With Adams, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, 33 percent of New York City voters said they thought he “has done something illegal”; 39 percent said he “has done something unethical, but not illegal”; while 18 percent said he “has done nothing wrong.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul also struggled in the poll. Only 43 percent of registered voters approved of the job she is doing as governor, while 44 percent disapproved.
“There’s no good news for New York’s major officials,” Lee Miringoff, the poll’s director, said in a statement. “Governor Hochul’s standing has deteriorated in the state; Mayor Adams faces a more negative constituency.”
For Adams, he was most popular with Black voters and older voters who were surveyed.
As for Hochul, only 39 percent of respondents said she is “changing the way things work in Albany for the better,” while 56 percent said she is not. She scored favorably on that question by a margin of 46 percent to 39 when Marist last asked it in October 2021, two months into her tenure.
A total of 59 percent of respondents said “the overall quality of life” in New York has “gotten worse” over the past year, while 11 percent said it has “gotten better.”
The Siena College Research Institute had been the only major independent pollster to release numbers on New York’s state government in 2023. The new Marist numbers help confirm months of conclusions by Siena that Hochul is in the polling doldrums — one Siena survey released on Monday found she was viewed favorably by 40 percent of registered voters and unfavorably by 43 percent.
Siena had a similar finding on Adams last month in a statewide poll: His job approval rating was 30 percent positive and 46 percent negative as he expects to run for a second term in 2025.
Marist also asked voters’ thoughts on Hochul’s political ideology.
Among Democrats, 19 percent said she was “too liberal,” 18 percent said “too conservative,” and 60 percent said “about right.” A total of 69 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of unaffiliated voters said she is “too liberal.”
The poll found that 48 percent of registered voters said Sen. Chuck Schumer is doing an “excellent” or “good” job in office, while 51 percent said his performance is “fair” or “poor.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand landed at 40 percent to 55 percent on that question as she plans to run for reelection next year.
Only 44 percent of New Yorkers approved of President Joe Biden’s job performance, while 53 percent disapproved.
Pollsters surveyed 1,556 registered voters from Nov. 13-15. The statewide numbers have a margin of error of 3.2 points, while the New York City numbers have a margin of error of 5.3 points.