#40 percent of New Yorkers would vote to recall Cuomo: poll

A large percentage of New Yorkers said they would support a recall procedure to boot Gov. Andrew Cuomo from office before his term expires in November 2022, a new poll reveals.

Respondents in the Zogby survey were asked if they supported such a process — which is not allowed in New York but is in place in states including California and Wisconsin — that allows residents to petition for an early recall election before an elected official’s term is completed.

“If it were possible, would you favor or oppose the recall of Gov. Andrew Cuomo,” the poll asked 810 likely voters.

Forty percent of respondents said they would support a recall election to remove Cuomo, while 42 percent said they were opposed — with the rest undecided.

There’s a serious petitioning campaign to hold a recall election to remove Calfornia’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Voters were asked if Cuomo, a Democrat who has been in office for a decade and said he would run for a fourth-term, deserves re-election.

Only 41 percent of voters said he deserves another term while 47 percent said it was time to elect someone new as governor, with the remainder undecided.

But while voters may be tiring of Cuomo, they see him as ol’ reliable when compared to would-be challengers.

Cuomo leads upstate Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik 49 percent to 37 percent among voters in a hypothetical match-up. The pro-Trump congresswoman has called Cuomo the worst governor in America.

In a hypothetical Democratic gubernatorial primary, Cuomo would trounce state Attorney General Letitia James 65 percent to 22 percent and lefty millennial firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 67 percent to 24 percent.

Cuomo, who has $16 million in his campaign kitty, has strong approval ratings for a three-term incumbent.

Sixty-one percent of responders view him favorably — the highest rating among all of New York’s top politicians — while 37 percent viewed him unfavorably.

Fifty five percent of voters gave him a good job performance and 56 percent backed his overall response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Voters were asked: “In your opinion is Governor Andrew Cuomo responsible for the thousands of deaths in New York state that needlessly occurred as a result of his decision last March to require nursing homes to accept patients released from hospitals, despite them being COVID-positive and despite testing deficiencies for both residents and staff?”

His handling of nursing homes during the pandemic is his achilles heel.

Nearly half of respondents — 48 percent — blamed Cuomo, while only 32 percent said he wasn’t at fault with the rest undecided.

Republicans insist Cuomo is vulnerable, when looking at how many voters said they want a new face as governor.

“It is a political nightmare for Gov. Cuomo that only 41% of New Yorkers would vote to re-elect him with 47% responding that they want someone new,” said Stefanik senior adviser Alex de Grasse.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi fired back, calling Stefanik a “Qanon Trump Puppet” who voted against stripping GOP South Carolina Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has in the past indicated support for QAnon and 9/11 conspiracy theories, of committee assignments over a series of incendiary comments.

Noting that Stefanik voted against the certification of President Biden’s election after the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building last month, Azzopardi said, “After seeing those violent videos replayed today at Trump’s impeachment, she is clearly running scared and doing anything to change the subject.”

He offered no comment about the large desire among those surveyed to recall his boss.

The Zogby survey queried 810 likely voters between Feb. 2-5 and has a 3.4 percent point margin of error.