New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he will not resign. | Seth Wenig / AP Photo
ALBANY, NY – A majority of New Yorkers do not want the government to resign Andrew Cuomo as he faces double scandals over allegations of sexual harassment and claims to have concealed the deaths from nursing homes, according to a poll released Thursday.
The Quinnipiac poll, which showed Cuomo’s numbers at the bottom and found that most residents were opposed to him choosing a fourth term, was not disastrous for an increasingly troubled governor.
Forty percent of voters said he should resign, while 55 percent said he should not. Most Democrats support him: only 21 percent say he should leave office.
The governor said Wednesday he will not stop.
Forty-five percent of respondents agree well with the handling of his work, while 46 percent do not approve of it. That is far less than the 72-24 Cuomo got in a Quinnipiac poll in May last year, when he was at the peak of his popularity. But that does not differ much from the most recent Quinnipiac poll conducted before the pandemic, when 42 per cent of respondents said they considered Cuomo favorable and 45 per cent said they considered him unfavorable.
The poll also found that only 36 percent of voters want Cuomo to vote for a fourth term next year, while 59 percent do not. The governor fared better among the Democrats, whose support is most critical in a state where most state-wide contests are decided in the primary: 50 percent want him to stand for election, while 44 percent do not.
Quinnipiac does not seem to have asked the exact question about Cuomo before. But this is entirely in line with the findings of other pollsters over the years: one from Siena in June 2019 found that votes were 37-58 on whether to seek a fourth term, an insignificant difference in the current Quinnipiac poll.
A total of 79 percent of respondents said on the charges of harassment that they took the accusations as “very” or “somewhat” serious. Only 27 percent are satisfied with the governor’s statement and apology, while 59 percent are not. And only 30 percent think he’s truth ‘in his answer, while 48 percent say he is not.
Quinnipiac spoke to 935 registered voters on March 2 and March 3 and their numbers have a margin of error of 3.2 points. Check out the cross steps here.