Poll: 81 percent of NY voters say more arrests of legislators for corruption are likely

A new poll from Siena College found that 81 percent of New York state voters say it’s likely that there will be more arrests of state legislators in the near future. About one-third of voters said it could even be their own state Assembly member or state senator that gets indicted, according to the poll, which the college released Monday.

Siena conducted the poll April 14-18, after New York State Senator Malcolm A. Smith (D–Queens) and Assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson (D–Bronx) were arrested on federal corruption charges in separate cases.

“More than half of voters describe themselves as ‘distrustful’ and ‘cynical’ of New York politics and 91 percent say legislative corruption is a serious problem,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a news release. “Clearly, the recent arrests have eroded confidence in the Legislature. In fact, voters are closely divided with 50 percent saying most legislators are ‘honest and law-abiding’ and 47 percent saying most ‘cannot be trusted.’ ”

New York state voters overwhelmingly support legislative term limits 82-17 percent, according to the poll.

Siena conducted the poll with telephone calls to 811 New York state registered voters. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com