As New Yorkers prepare to cast votes in today”™s state primaries, a new poll released Sept. 12 by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute shows nearly eight in 10 New Yorkers think legislative corruption is a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem.
The poll”™s release comes on the heels of a sexual harassment scandal implicating state Assemblyman Vito Lopez, whose district includes parts of Brooklyn, and an alleged attempt to bury the accusations by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who authorized the payment of $103,000 in state funds to two former Lopez staffers who said their former boss harassed them at work.
Fifty-four percent of voters surveyed by Quinnipiac said Gov. Andrew Cuomo should take the lead in cleaning up legislative corruption in New York state, with 56 percent of those surveyed saying Cuomo is doing an “excellent” or a “good” job of cleaning up misconduct.
Clean-up efforts by legislative leaders are “not so good” or “poor,” according to 63 percent of those surveyed.
“Is legislative corruption a big deal? This poll echoes the headlines,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the polling institute, in a prepared statement. “New Yorkers don”™t like what they see.”
More than three-quarters of those surveyed by Quinnipiac also oppose a pay raise for legislators, a rejection Carroll said was “perhaps prompted by the persistent stories of Albany misbehavior.”
Cuomo”™s approval rating was 70 percent, down slightly from a 73 percent approval rating based on a July 25 Quinnipiac poll.
Separately, those surveyed support allowing hydraulic fracturing, a method of drilling for natural gas, in upstate New York”™s Marcellus Shale by a slim margin, with 45 percent in favor and 41 percent against allowing the practice.
