ALBANY – New York voters are seething over the recently resolved Senate stalemate and will remember the names of do-nothing senators at the polls, according to a new poll out this morning.
The statewide Siena Research Institute survey found 77 percent of registered voters are “angry” about the five-week Senate power struggle and believe the feud “accomplished nothing.”
Some 71 percent say they’ve become less confident in government’s ability to address state problems in the last month, with voters widely rejecting arguments 55-36 that legislative rules changes enacted after the deadlock will improve the way the chamber conducts business. Nearly two thirds of respondents believed that voters would remember the wasted month when the 62 senators face re-election in 2010. If the contest were held today, 40 percent would vote for the challenger, compared to 31 percent who would re-elect the incumbent.
Siena Pollster Steven Greenberg, however, said he was skeptical that lawmakers would pay the price at the polls.
“Voters have never historically shown a very long memory when it comes to political fights,” Greenberg said.
The stalemate began June 8 when the chamber’s 30 Republicans and one rogue Democrat conspired to elect turncoat Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx) Senate president. It ended July 9, after Espada returned to the Democratic fold in exchange for the title of “majority leader.”
Perhaps one beneficiary of the coup was Gov. Paterson, a Democrat, who kept lawmakers in Albany until the leadership fight ended and used a rare televised address to announce that he would challenge a widely held view of state law and appoint Richard Ravtich lieutenant governor.
Paterson’s historically low favorability rating ticked up slightly to 36 percent from 31 percent in June. Voters generally approve 51-34 of the legally questionable appointment, but nearly two thirds say they don’t know enough about Ravitch to have an opinion of him personally.