The Walls Are Closing in On Shelly Silver

by Matthew Hampton

A new Sienna Polling Institute release contains a lot of bad news for New York State Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver: just over half of New York thinks he should step down.

After a series of scandals — most recently involving the handling of sexual harassment claims against Vito Lopez — Silver is becoming the least popular man in New York's smoke-filled room. 

"Speaker Silver — with his worst-ever favorability rating in a Siena College Poll and a negative three-to-one job performance rating — does not have the confidence of New York voters, with more than half suggesting that he step down as speaker in light of his handling of the Lopez investigation,” said pollster Steven Greenberg. 

Greenberg added that many voters polled across the state typically hold Silver's status as a lower-Manhattan representative against him. Now however, combined with his handling of the Lopez scandal, his positive impressions among voters outside his district are virtually gone.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo doesn't have much to celebrate either. His favorability rating — 58-35 percent — is the lowest since he took office. That's a bitter pill for a man still trying to fuel presidential aspirations. 

“His job performance rating — now virtually dead even — is also the lowest it has been during his tenure as governor," Greenberg said. “For the fourth consecutive month and fourth time ever, more voters think he’s doing a poor job as governor than an excellent job."

Cuomo's Women's Equality Act, however, is popular with a majority of New York voters, more than half of those polled think it should pass.