The governors of the nation’s two largest blue states, California and New York, have recently faced accountability moments, as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned his office in August, and California Governor Gavin Newsom survived a recall effort last week.

In a survey of residents of the two states during this period of political upheaval, the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at CMC compared attitudes of California and New York voters toward the power to recall public officials, their governors’ performances, and problems facing the states.

Unlike other recent polls that have focused exclusively on the views of California voters regarding Governor Newsom and the recall process leading up to the California recall election, the CMC-Rose Institute Poll provides a comparison of public opinion in these two, large, Democratic states—one of which allows for the recall of elected officials, while the other does not.

The poll, designed by the Rose Institute and conducted by YouGov, surveyed 2,000 respondents in California and 1,675 in New York between August 30, 2021 and September 10, 2021.

CMC Profs. Andrew Sinclair and Ken Miller oversaw and developed the poll comparing political attitudes in California and New York states. Sinclair and Miller discussed the survey this week on KPCC’s “Air Talk” with Larry Mantle.

Key Findings

Among other findings, the poll shows that:

• A large majority of Californians (70.6%), including nearly all Republicans (92.5%) and independents (84.3%), as well as most Democrats (56.2%), believe the people should retain the power to recall governors.
• Similarly, nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers (65.2%), including a narrow majority of Democrats (52.2%) would like to gain the power to recall…