New York’s Cuomo Most Popular Governor in the Country

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has the highest approval rating among his peers around the nation, with New Jersey’s Chris Christie coming second, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Cuomo’s score among registered voters rose to 64 percent from 56 percent in February, higher than governors in five other states polled by the Hamden, Connecticut-based college. Christie, a first-term Republican, has the next highest rating at 52 percent, according to a Feb. 9 survey.

“Cuomo comes out of the budget vote — usually a punishing time for politicians — with impressive job-approval numbers,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a statement.

New York lawmakers approved the state’s first on-time budget in five years March 31. Cuomo, a 53-year-old Democrat, pushed lawmakers to close the budget gap with $9.3 billion of spending cuts, including reductions in education and health care that were opposed by a majority of voters, according to earlier surveys.

Almost half of respondents supported the new budget while 31 percent didn’t, and the same percentage said the governor was most responsible for the final concord. Cuomo won his first budget battle on the merit of his arguments, 47 percent said, while a quarter said he used intimidation.

The governor has threatened to fire almost 10,000 workers unless they agree to $450 million in concessions.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,704 registered voters around the state by telephone from April 5-11. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points, the institute said.