A new poll shows Gov. Kathy Hochul has seen a bump in her standing with some New Yorkers, as Siena College polled 807 registered voters on everything from the governor’s job approval to the wars in Ukraine and Israel.
“There’s a good news and bad news addition of this poll,” said Steven Greenberg, pollster for the Siena College Research institute said of the governor’s standing.
Greenberg said the good news for Hochul is that her favorability and job approval ratings have jumped.
She has a 45-42% favorability rating, up from 40-43% in November, the first time it has been positive since February 2023.
Her job approval rating is 52-43%, which is also a bump from 48-44% in November.
“Her favorability and job ratings albeit not spectacular, are the best they have been in almost a year, both are in the positive territory now,” he said.
That said, he told Spectrum News 1 that the poll isn’t all good news for the governor.
On a host of issues including health care, mental health, and making living in New York more desirable, he says voters have concerns.
“Voters are not confident at all that she will succeed in making those issues better from a voters point of view,” he said.
Greenberg says there’s not much good news at all, meanwhile, for President Joe Biden: His favorability rating is just 43%.
“Joe Biden has the worst favorability rating he’s ever had in a Siena College poll and that predates his presidency,” he said. “He also has the worst job approval rating he’s had in the three years he’s been president.”
Looking at the 2024 presidential race, Greenberg says the news doesn’t get much better for Biden.
In a head-to-head matchup, he leads former President Donald Trump by just 9 points, 46% to 37%.
“No Republican has carried New York in a presidential race since Ronald Reagan in 1984, 40 years ago,” he said. “So the fact that this is a single-digit race at the moment, a poll being a snapshot in time, I think that has got to be concerning for Biden and Democrats.”
When it comes to foreign aid, those polled continue to support aid to Ukraine, slightly down from 52% to 50% in November, but 45% of voters disapprove of additional aid to Israel. In November, that same aid had been supported by 51% of voters polled.
When it comes to Ukraine, Democrats support increased aid by more than two to one, however, Republicans oppose it by a similar margin with independents are closely divided.
“There is no partisan divide on the issue of Israel,” he said. “What we see is none of the parties overwhelmingly support or oppose aid to Israel."
And as we get closer to the 2024 congressional elections, the poll also found that 49% those polled would vote for a Democrat over 32% who would vote for a Republican.
When it comes to the migrant crisis, more than 80% of voters continue to say that the recent migrant influx is a serious problem (61% say very serious). When it comes to how elected officials are doing in addressing the migrant influx, voters disapprove of the job New York City Mayor Eric Adams is doing 54-28%, the job Hochul is doing 59-33%, and the job the Biden administration is doing 67-28%.