Poor Mayor Bloomberg just can't catch a break. The big debut of his "non-partisan" 2012 presidential astroturf campaign, No Labels, was totally upstaged when we reported that all the graphic designs were stolen. Two weeks later, Blizzageddon struck, just as he was finally starting to unwind at an undisclosed location that may or may not have been a fabulous mansion on a tropical island. And these... people just won't let it go! A new NY1/Marist College poll [pdf] shows that the mayor's approval ratings are at an all-time low. And oh look, it's snowing again. A certain someone won't be traipsing off to Bermuda this weekend!
Bloomberg’s approval rating is at its lowest point—37%—since taking office [Ed. note: Another poll had him at 32% in 2003]. Included here are 11% who say he is doing an excellent job in office and 26% who report he is doing a good one. 34% rate his performance as fair while 26% believe he is doing a poor job. Only 3% are unsure.
When Marist last asked this question in its October survey, half of registered voters—50%—gave Bloomberg high marks. At that time, 14% said he was doing an excellent job, and 36% reported he was doing a good one. 30% thought his performance was fair, and 15% believed the mayor was doing a poor job. Five percent were unsure.
"Mayor Bloomberg clearly will need a big shovel if he wants to dig himself out of this political storm," says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion and, we suspect, a real cut-up at the dinner table. Overall, 71% of New Yorkers disapprove of how Bloomberg handled the snow removal during Blizzageddon. The biggest critics are in Brooklyn, where 78% disapproved. In pampered Manhattan, where people actually matter, disapproval is significantly lower, at 68%.
The Manhattanites are also the most pleased with his job performance over all—55% think he's doing a heck of a job. In the Bronx, only 36% cheer him, while 36% in Queens and Staten Island give him a thumbs up, and 24% in Brooklyn give him high marks. "I've lived in this neighborhood many years, and I thought it was the worst that I've seen in all those years," one Brooklyn resident tells NY1. But with the snow falling heavily now, Mother Nature seems to be giving the mayor a second chance to make it up to New Yorkers! If all goes well, he'll be able to look back at this and laugh all the way to the White House.
