A majority of New York City residents disapprove of how Mayor Eric Adams is doing his job as he imposes unpopular budget cuts to police and other services, a sobering new survey released Tuesday reveals.
The Maris College Poll found 54% of Big Apple residents gave thumbs down to Adams’ job performance while just 37% approve — a precipitous decline from a year ago.
Currently 33% of residents strongly disapprove of how Adams is doing his job while only 15% strongly approve.
“Adams doesn’t have a reservoir of public opinion to fall back on. These budget cuts are going to land like a thud” said Marist College polling director Lee Miringoff.
“We don’t know if Adams has hit rock bottom,” he said.
In March of 2022, residents approved of Adams’ job performance by more than two-to-one. at that time, 61% of Big Apple respondents liked the job he was doing, compared to 24% who disapproved.
Since then, Adams has grappled with budget woes triggered in part by burgeoning costs caused to shelter a relenting influx of migrants and crime. His proposed cuts that would shrink the police department by cancelling recruitment classes, and trim spending to schools, libraries and cultural institutions could put a bigger bigger dent in his popularity.
At the same time, the FBI and prosecutors and the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan are investigating whether Adams’ 2021 campaign accepted illegal donations, including straw donors with links to Turkey.
More than seven in ten New York City residents — 72% — think Adams did something wrong in regards to the federal probe.
This figure includes 33% city respondents who say Adams personally did something illegal and 39% who say he did something unethical but not illegal — meaning 72% combined believe the mayor did something wrong. Only 18% say Adams has done nothing wrong, and 10% are unsure.
Adams has denied wrongdoing and neither he nor anyone from the campaign has been accused of a crime. Previously, his former Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich was indicted for bribery and six others were indicted in a straw donor scheme.
Adams’ poor approval numbers put him “on thin ice” and will encourage others with ambitions to challenge him in a Democratic primary or general election in 2025, Marist College’s Miringoff said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul fared little better. The Empire State as a whole is a basket case, residents from across the state said.
A majority of New York State residents — 59% — think the quality of life in New York has gotten worse during the past year, 11% say it has gotten better, and 30% believe it has not changed.
Even nearly half of Democrats — 46% of Democrats — think conditions have worsened under a Democratic governor and mayor, as well as 78% of Republicans, and 67% of independent voters.
Meanwhile a majority of New Yorkers — 56% — including 43% of Democrats, do not think Hochul is improving the way things are working in Albany, compared to 39% who say she is having a positive effect on state government.
Shortly after she became governor in October of 2021, 46% of New Yorkers said Hochul was changing things for the better while 39% thought she was negatively impacting state government, a Marist survey then found.
New York State residents are split on Hochul’s job performance — 42% disapprove of Hochul’s job performance as governor. 41% approve. In 2021, Hochul enjoyed a 49% job approval rating.
New Yorkers now are nearly twice as likely to strongly disapprove (26%) of Hochul’s job performance as strongly approve (15%).
Presented a different way, 60% of New Yorkers say Hochul is doing a fair (28%) or poor job (32%) as governor.
“There’s no good news for New York’s major officials,” Miringoff said.
This statewide survey of 1,780 New York State adults was conducted November 13-15 the Marist Poll. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Of that total, 659 New York City adults were queried. The city findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.