Governor Andrew Cuomo’s approval rating is the lowest it’s been since he’s been Governor, according to a new poll.
TheSiena College poll finds only 44% of voters like the job that Andrew Cuomo is doing as governor. 56% say he’s doing a fair or poor job.
Siena’s Steve Greenberg says it’s the first time the governor’s approval rating has dipped below 50%.
“His job performance, how voters think Andrew Cuomo is doing as governor, took a big hit this month,” Greenberg said.
Cuomo doesn’t have to be too worried though about his 2014 re election race. When matched up against three potential Republican opponents, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino and state GOP Chair Ed Cox, nearly two thirds of the potential voters back Cuomo.
The governor also has nearly $30 million dollars in his campaign war chest, more than any other governor in the country. No potential opponent so far has any significant amount of money for a race.
Greenberg says the funds will make it easy for Cuomo to get his message out over the next year.
“That’s a lot of money to spend telling your story,” Greenberg said.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers are unsettled about recent trends in education, particularly the state’s implementation of what’s known as the new Common Core standards, part of a national effort to raise the level of class room instruction. The poll finds 49% have doubts about the program, while only 45% said they have confidence in the new program.
The program has been controversial in New York, where parents and teachers have confronted the state’s Education Commissioner, John King, in public meetings, saying the children are stressed from all of the new tests being administered as part of the transition, and that too much time is being taken away from classroom learning.
When respondents were asked what they think about the new tests, the majority, 52% said they think there are just too many of them .
“The one thing we know that voters do agree on is testing,” said Greenberg. “That there is too much testing in the schools.”
Cuomo, who once said he intended to be the lobbyist for students, has mostly kept out of the debate, saying he understands that big changes can have a rocky start, but that he supports the national shift to the Common Core standards.