The Corsair
Siena Poll: New Yorkers Don't Like George Santos. And Why This is Not Good For Elise Stefanik.
George Santos is the cause of unanimous tri-partisan agreement in the state of New York — Democrats, Republicans and Independents, often sharp-elbowed partisans, can all agree on at least on one thing. In a new Siena Poll released Monday, the majority of registered New York respondents said that they want Santos to resign.
This comes nearly two weeks after the Nassau County Republican party held a presser asking him, rather forcefully, to abandon office. Also — residents in his own district, NY’s 3rd, have been protesting outside of his office for the last few weeks. “People are really coming together,” Casey Sabella, a Glen Cove resident and community organizer with Courage for America told the Long Island Herald last week. “People are upset and angry and don’t feel like they have representation in Congress.
And while it is difficult at present to imagine Santos serving out his entire two-year term — considering his multiple criminal investigations in multiple countries — it is entirely possible that the Santos blowback actually redounds upon his chief patron and enabler in New York State, namely, the exquisitely nihilistic Elise Stefanik.
Kevin McCarthy, for one, is sticking with Santos (though his popularity among New York Independents, according to the poll, is dropping precipitously). So thin is his majority in the House that he needs Santos to function at even a bare minimum with a hollow gavel. But Elise Stefanik is an even more curious case, one could actually doom the Republican Party in the Empire State for a generation. The donor class, particularly, is rankled by the deceptions of Stefanik. From CNN:
“Another donor, who attended a fundraising luncheon with Stefanik and Santos, confirmed to CNN through a representative that ‘he donated to George Santos because of Elise Stefanik’s endorsement.’
“Congresswoman Stefanik supported all GOP nominees in targeted New York seats just like every other New York Republican elected official, candidate, NRCC, NYGOP, and the entire House Republican leadership team,” a Stefanik campaign spokesperson told CNN, adding that Stefanik was not “aware of the allegations (against Santos) prior to the New York Times reporting.”
Stefanik rose to power by being a moderate Republican and Trump loyalist in a sprawling northern New York district with not that much baggage in terms of political belief. Nick Confessore’s Times article at the end of last year was a revelation on Stefanik’s “evolution” as well as how her constituents thought of her in the time of Trump. “Most recalled, instead, her generic loyalty to the Republican Party, her intense competitiveness and her unerring ability to absorb what she thought people around her wanted and to reflect it back at them,” Confessore wrote. “Eager to advance, skilled at impressing more powerful figures with her intelligence and work ethic, she has spent years embedding herself wherever the action seems to be at the time.”
A couple other stunning revelations from the Siena poll. Santos’s favorability in the Suburbs is 8%. Those, dear reader, are lower favorability ratings than Nickelback! Further, 54% of self-identified conservative New York registered voters said Santos should resign.
Crunching the numbers it is always a bit of a trip to see undecideds, last-minute voters, late-breaking voters — or the equivalent — and where they fall on issues. At this point, I would kind of like to see exactly what a registered NY voter that "does not have an opinion" on George Santos looks like. “Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they didn’t know Santos or had no opinion on him — a smaller proportion than six-term Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who recently became the Democratic leader in the House,” writes Kevin Breuninger on CNBC. Honey, we need to talk about education if, at this august date, you don’t have an opinion on Santos.
The North Shore Leader (circulation 5000) was the first to editorialize against the lies of Santos. Then, right around the holidays, the bombshell New York Times story came out revealing the levels of fraud Santos undertook to get to Congress and since then every late night show has been dining off fabulist jokes in their monologue. This week SNL included him (at least) twice in the broadcast. Who, at this point, has no opinion on the most famous sociopath in America? Not the suburbs, apparently. From Politico:
… (S)uburban residents — who make up the heart of the congressman’s Long Island district — took a particular disliking to Santos. More than three quarters of them registered their disapproval of the newly elected representative, while only 8 percent took a positive view. The survey of over 800 registered voters was conducted between Jan. 15-19 and has a margin of error of 4.3 percent.
That’s a resounding 71% of suburban residents that said Santos should resign. The suburbs! This is traditionally where Republicans draw their strength! Whatever momentary advantage McCarthy and his Republican majority get from Santos, what will be the long-term effects on the New York Republican party and Stefanik?
In the meantime, far right-wing media outlets like Newmax, by contrast, are busy covering the exorcism that Nancy Pelosi held in her house after a hammer-wielding monster attempted to kill her husband. “Don’t look at the nightmare in New York 3!!”
Ultimately, the poll includes less than a thousand New Yorkers, but it speaks volumes about the popularity of Santos and how his future could augur, negatively, for New York Republicans, who have been surprisingly competitive in such a blue state. At least for the present.
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