The Siena College is out with its first favorability poll on Kathy Hochul as governor. The results are generally positive, but she remains unknown to a large number of New Yorkers.
The poll found Hochul has an early 42-17% favorability rating among registered voters and 41% of those surveyed are still undecided.
“While still largely unknown to a wide swath of New Yorkers, Gov. Hochul begins her tenure with a lot of
good will from voters," said Siena Pollster Steve Greenberg. "Among those with an opinion about her, she is viewed strongly favorably, although two in five New Yorkers don’t yet have an opinion, despite Hochul having been lieutenant governor for six years and elected statewide twice."
Greenberg said voters are overwhelmingly excited to have New York’s first woman governor, all political parties expect her to be more collaborative than her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, and about half of those surveyed reject the notion that Hochul doesn’t have enough experience to lead New York.
“It may be too early to call it a honeymoon, however, voters across the partisan spectrum say that they think
Hochul will be successful in ensuring in-person public school education, leading the state through
natural disasters and controling the spread of COVID," Greenberg said. "While most think she will
be successful in revitalizing the state’s economy and balancing tenant/landlord rights, a plurality of Republicans
think she will be unsuccessful in each of those efforts.”
Cuomo, on the other hand, got his worst-ever favorability rating during his tenure. Only a third of New York voters had a favorable opinion of the former governor when he left office, and voters overwhelmingly said Cuomo should have resigned rather than remain in office.
