ALBANY — New York voters still love Gov. Cuomo — and want him to stay right where he is.
But a new Siena College poll finds most Empire State voters think Hillary Clinton should run for president in 2016.
The survey also found hydrofracking for natural gas with more supporters than opponents, while nearly two thirds of voters think it’s OK for their state senator to switch party allegiance in determining control of the chamber.
Though Cuomo scored a whopping 72-21 percent favorability rating, his highest in a Siena poll since April, voters by 49-39 percent don’t think he should seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Three of every five voters think Cuomo’s doing a good or excellent job, while 38 percent rate his performance as fair or poor, and 62 percent said they’d vote to re-elect him in 2014.
Clinton rung up a record 75-23 percent favorability rating, including 50 percent of Republicans, and Empire State voters by 54-39 percent say they want President Obama’s outgoing secretary of state and the former Democratic US senator from New York to seek her husband’s old job in the White House.
Siena’s Senate question came after Brooklyn Democrat Simcha Felder disclosed he’ll caucus with Republicans next year but before Senate Republicans and a bloc of five other breakaway Democrats announced a joint coalition to run the house next year, though there had been many reports about the potential alliance.
While senators switching allegiance was OK to voters by 65-28, by 60-30 they opposed Cuomo getting involved in the Senate leadership fight, the Nov. 26-29 telephone survey of 822 registered voters found.
While city and particularly suburban residents support fracturing upstate shale with a pressurized chemical, sand and water mix, upstaters narrowly oppose the practice, which environmentalists caution could cause pollution and health hazards. Fracking won 42-36 percent support overall, unchanged from Siena’s October poll.
Led by Democrats, voters said the national and state economies will improve next year (39-22 and 34-21, respectively).
Voters also say by 55-32 percent that New York is headed on the right track. And for the first time since August 2009, half of New York voters say the nation is headed on the right track too.
Voters gave favorable ratings to all major politicians, including Obama (62 percent), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (63), US Sens. Charles Schumer (65) and Kirsten Gillibrand (61) and Mayor Bloomberg (55).