This certainly sounds bad, but Siena’s poll has one major limitation. When it comes to the sexual-harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo, only 35% of New York voters want him to resign. Needless to say, this isn’t the only issue that should push legislators to take action against the governor.

Even that is thin comfort, though:

Most New York voters are satisfied with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s explanation of the sexual harassment allegations made against him and barely a third want him to resign, a Siena College Research Institute poll released Monday morning found. …

A total of 57 percent of respondents say they’re “satisfied with the way Cuomo has addressed the allegations,” while 32 percent say they are “not satisfied.”

And 48 percent of voters think he can “effectively do his job.” That compares to 34 percent who say he “cannot.” On the resignation question, 35 percent of voters think he should leave office, 50 percent say he should not and 15 percent are undecided.

So more than half of the respondents are “satisfied” with Cuomo’s total denials against seven accusers, at latest count? I bet Harvey Weinstein wonders what changed in New York. It’s one thing to say that we should wait for the investigation to determine what happened, but that’s not what this response indicates. By the way, 67% of Democrats say they’re satisfied with Cuomo’s responses … but it’s still 56% among independents, too.

One does have to wonder how those numbers might change if more emphasis got placed on Cuomo’s cover-up of nursing-home deaths. Only 27% have an approving opinion of Cuomo’s track record on “making public all data” on nursing-home deaths; 66% rate him as fair or poor, with 40% choosing the latter. Even among Democrats, it’s 36/56. Among seniors, it’s 18/76, with 52% choosing “poor.” If the focus increased on this issue — which is not open to interpretation — rather than the ambiguous nature of sexual-harassment allegations, would there be more pressure on Cuomo to resign?

Bill de Blasio attempted to marry the two scandals together on CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday. However, de Blasio also made clear that he believes Cuomo set that policy and covered up its impacts on the basis of campaign contributions:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio lambasted embattled Governor Andrew Cuomo as he faces calls to resign amid accusations of sexual misconduct, saying the Democratic governor is “literally in the way of us saving lives” by remaining in office.

“He should resign right now because he’s holding up our effort to fight COVID,” de Blasio, a Democrat and Cuomo’s longtime political rival, said in an interview with “Face the Nation.” “He’s literally in the way of us saving lives right now.” …

“Everything was about his public image. Everything was about his political future. It was not about what people needed,” the mayor said. “And by the way, it was about campaign contributions. The nursing home industry, the big hospital systems, they gave him millions and millions of dollars and he went easy on them. And he tried to cover up for everyone. Not just him, but his donors.”

The investigations into Cuomo’s handling of nursing home patients who became infected with COVID-19 will show he acted in the benefit of his political supporters, de Blasio added.

“This was a thoroughly corrupt situation and he just needs to resign so we can actually turn the page,” he said. “And look, it’s an optimistic time, as you started out this morning. It’s an optimistic time. We got to put the past behind us.”

That’s undoubtedly true, but it seems as though de Blasio needs to do more convincing.