New Yorkers believe that the greedy plan by Democrats to carve up the state’s congressional maps to give themselves a leg-up against Republicans will be bad for the Empire State, according to a new poll.
Only a minor 21% of New Yorkers think that a proposed constitutional amendment — backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — to redraw the maps in their favor was “good for New York,” the latest Siena University survey found.
Even the Democratic voters polled roundly reject the aggressive gerrymandering effort, with just 26% saying they think their own pols in Albany should be able to draw the districts.
A much more substantial 38% of Democrats confessed it was bad, and 21% were in the middle.
Overall, a plurality of voters surveyed (44%) said they believed the proposed 2027 redistricting amendment was bad for the Empire State. About one in five New Yorkers (21%) were in the middle, according to the poll.
“This poll proves that New Yorkers are too smart to buy into Democrats’ nonsense about ‘saving democracy,’” New York Republican Committee spokesperson David Laska told The Post.
“They know this is about one thing and one thing only — power. Republicans have stopped Democrats every time they have tried to rig our maps. We will stop them again,” he insisted.
It’s bad news for Dem bigwigs like Hochul, Jeffries and Rep. Joe Morelle, who have promised to spend “resources” on a campaign to somehow rally enough support for the power grab to be approved via a ballot measure.
“I think the voters understand that this is now a, in some ways, an existential threat to the Republic,” Morelle crowed a month ago, flanked by Hochul, in her state capitol office.
The proposal would do away with the bipartisan panel established by a constitutional amendment in 2014.
Republican New Yorkers, who currently hold seven of New York’s 26 House seats, are decidedly opposed to the proposal, with 54% of the conservatives polled saying it’s bad, according to the survey.
Independents also tilted against the measure, with almost half (47%) viewing it as bad for the Empire State. Only 14% of Independents believe it’s a good move.
“There is partisan agreement in opposition to the amendment, which received first passage by the Legislature earlier this month,” Siena Poll spokesperson Steve Greenberg said of the results.
“While these results will make Republican leaders happy, it shows that Democratic leaders have a lot of work to do between now and Election Day 2027 if they want to see this amendment approved by voters,” Greenberg added.
Still, while Republicans may be able to breathe a sigh of relief from Thursday’s poll, GOP candidate for Governor Bruce Blakeman is not amongst them.
The Siena poll found Blakeman 20 points behind Hochul, with less than five months until November’s midterm elections.
A special cross-section of the poll conducted by Newsday showed Blakeman slightly ahead of Hochul in his native Nassau County (44% to 39%).
The Buffalo Democrat is still beating him in the New York City suburbs, including the rest of Long Island and parts of the Hudson Valley.
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