ALBANY – Gov. Cuomo’s job approval rating continues to slide and he’d only beat New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie by single digits in his own state in a presidential matchup, a new poll finds.
The Quinnipiac University survey showing Cuomo besting Christie 46-38 percent in 2016 also finds Republicans turning against Democrat Cuomo (49-38) for the first time since he took office Jan. 1, 2011.
And independent New York voters would heavily favor Republican Christie over their own governor (48-29), the survey finds.
But New Yorkers still strongly favor the controversial gun control law (64-31) that Cuomo rammed through the state legislature in January – and that observers largely attribute to the slide that left Cuomo’s job approval rating at 55-27 in the Q poll.
That’s down from 74-13 on Dec. 12 – two days before the elementary school shootings in Newtown, Ct. that prompted Cuomo to push through the nation’s first post-massacre gun control law.
And New York voters give lower overall favorability ratings to Cuomo (52-27) than to Christie (55-17) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (71-24).
Meantime New York voters say they’re more dissatisfied than satisfied with the way things are going in the state (52-46). Quinnipiac’s January poll found a near even split.
Ex-First Lady Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, would easily beat Christie in her adopted home state (59-32) in a 2016 presidential race.
Republicans and upstate voters remain opposed to the gun law, the March 11-17 telephone survey of 1,165 state voters found.
President Obama gets a 57-39 job approval rating, while New York’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, get overall favorability ratings of 61-27 and 57-21, respectively.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percent.