HILL RATINGS TAKE DIVE Sunday,February 25,2001
By GREGG BIRNBAUM
The majority of New Yorkers aren't buying Hillary Clinton's "I knew nothing" denials in the growing pardon scandal - and only 22 percent think she's doing a good job, a devastating new Post poll shows.
The Zogby International poll found 58 percent don't think Clinton was telling the truth when she claimed Thursday she didn't know her brother Hugh Rodham was a highly paid pardon-pusher for a convicted drug dealer and a shady businessman.
And only 33 percent believed Clinton when she said she knew nothing about her brother's efforts.
In the month since the pardon bombshells first exploded, Clinton's popularity has plummeted - and former President Bill Clinton is faring even worse, the survey found.
"She's back to being the polarizing figure that she worked so hard during the campaign to neutralize," pollster John Zogby said.
The ex-first lady is doing so badly that if voters went back to the polls today, she would beat her former Republican foe, Rick Lazio, by just 1 percentage point, 46 percent to 45 percent, the poll found. Clinton whipped Lazio by 12 points last November.
The poll of 502 New Yorkers, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, was taken Friday and yesterday.
The new senator's job performance in the Senate won a thumbs-up from just 22 percent of the voters, while 35 percent ranked her fair or poor. Forty-three percent said they had no opinion. Clinton's rating stands in remarkable contrast to Sen. Charles Schumer.
Schumer's job approval is heralded by 47 percent - more than double Clinton's - while those ranking him as fair or poor amount to 30 percent. The public's dramatically differing views of the two senators was even more apparent when New Yorkers were asked their overall opinion of Clinton and Schumer.
Fifty-one percent had a favorable view of the former first lady, while 46 percent expressed an unfavorable opinion.
Last month, Clinton's favorable-unfavorable rating was much better - 56 percent to 39 percent.
Clinton suffered the greatest slide in the swing-voting suburbs. Her unfavorable rating, at 58 percent, was higher there than in other regions of the state. Sixty-seven percent in the suburbs said they don't believe her pardon denials.
Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy questioned the validity of the poll, saying Zogby put Lazio ahead during the Senate race. Zogby's final tracking survey on election eve had Clinton leading Lazio by 3 percentage points.
Hillary’s approval ratings plummet to 22% of New Yorkers in a devastating new Post poll
-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), February 26, 2001