ALBANY — Excuse us, Mr. President! It’s our job to toss the governor!
Six in 10 New Yorkers believe President Obama was wrong in his attempt to force Gov. Paterson from the 2010 gubernatorial race, according to the latest Marist College poll.
The statewide survey of registered voters nonetheless found little sympathy for the beleaguered governor.
Job approval for both Paterson and the president slipped to all-time lows in the days since Obama’s intervention came to light.
“The firestorm was bad for both,” Marist poll director Lee Miringoff said. “Generally, New Yorkers are saying they may not like the governor, but they want to be the ones to determine that. So, thumbs down to meddling.”
The poll also detailed new signs of trouble for Paterson’s most high-profile appointee, US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
The upstate Democrat, appointed to take Hillary Rodham Clinton’s seat in January, would lose 40-51 in hypothetical matchup against Republican Rudy Giuliani, the survey found.
Paterson’s job-approval rating dropped 3 percentage points, to 17 percent. He’s the least popular governor in the nation, and has reached a mark of unpopularity unprecedented for a New York chief executive.
In the same week, the percentage of voters who rated Obama’s job performance as good or excellent dipped 5 points, to 52 percent.