The more publicity Hochul receives, the less voters like what she's doing

                                                                              

With all the publicity Gov. Kathy Hochul gets every day, she should be rising in the polls,  not falling.

But it seems the more people get to know New York's unelected Democratic governor,  the less voters like what she's doing --  except, perhaps, for some news columnists.

The Siena College Research Institute is out today with a new poll of New York voters and its not good news for Hochul, the lieutenant governor from Buffalo who automatically became governor when Andrew Cuomo resigned in August.

“Hochul’s overall job performance rating, the worst it’s ever been, is 21 points under water, after being 11 points under water last month and just two points under water at the start of the year," said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg in a news release. 

"As they have all year, Republicans give her an abysmal job performance rating, while independents also continue to give her a decidedly negative rating. Democrats are still positive, 55-42%, although that’s down from 63-33% last month.”

Graph of Hochul's month by month job performance rating from the Siena College Research Institute poll

She is also underwater in the general election poll.

Only 40 percent of the voters sampled statewide say they would vote for Hochul in the general election if she makes it through the June Democratic primary while 45 percent say they would "prefer someone else."

That's down from 43 percent of voters statewide who last month said they would vote for Hochul. 

The percentage has dropped every month since January despite near daily press conferences by Hochul or her announcements of state grants to local jurisdictions, which are generally sure fire political vote getters.

Graph of Hochul overall voter supports from Siena College Research Institute Poll

 

The Siena poll was conducted April 18-21, 2022, among 806 New York State registered voters, nearly half registered Democrats.

The timing of the poll means voters were asked about Hochul about a week after her chosen Lieutenant Gov. Brian Benjamin was arrested on federal corruption charges and then resigned.

It's also about a week after a gunman opened fire on the New York City subway.

Generally, it takes three weeks for public opinion to reflect current events so her support may drop even more. 

Even so, the poll found that crime was the top concern among voters, followed closely by economic issues. Government corruption came in third.

But Hochul's dropping support doesn't indicate her opponents are gaining ground -- Democrat or Republican.

The poll doesn't ask if voters would rather cast their primary ballots for Hochul's primary challengers: U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi and New York city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, or for the likely Republican candidate in the general election, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin.

But it did ask whether voters had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of them.

Among Democrats, 38 percent had a favorable opinion of Williams and 26 percent viewed Suozzi favorably while most voters overall didn't know them or had no opinion of them.

Hochul had a 60 percent favorability rating among Democrats but 24 percent had no opinion. Statewide, she was viewed favorably by 44 percent of voters.

Among voters overall,  22 percent have a favorable view of  Zeldin but 59 percent don't know him or have no opinion of him.

The lack of strong support for any candidate generally means a low turnout election. And elections with no enthusiam often have odd outcomes.  But incumbents should be worried.