Bloomberg Approval At All-Time Low

Mayor Moneybags better keep hiring the spinmesters in preparation for his White House run because his approval rating in New York City just hit an all-time low:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took a lot of heat over how the city handled the December 26th blizzard, and his approval rating reflects the firestorm of controversy. In fact, Bloomberg’s approval rating is at its lowest point — 37% — since taking office. Included here are 11% who say he is doing an excellent job in office and 26% who report he is doing a good one. 34% rate his performance as fair while 26% believe he is doing a poor job. Only 3% are unsure.

His overall "legacy" as New York mayor has also dropped:

The storm has had a slight impact on Bloomberg’s legacy. Almost four in ten voters — 39% — think he will leave behind a positive legacy. Included here are 12% of voters who report the mayor will be remembered as one of the city’s best mayors and 27% who say he will be considered an above average mayor in New York City’s history. 35% think Bloomberg will be thought of as an average mayor. However, 15% think his legacy will be below average, and 10% report he will be perceived as one of the city’s worst mayors. In Marist’s August survey, 46% thought the mayor’s legacy would be positive, either one of the best or above average.

And for the first time since Bloomberg took office in 2002, a majority of New Yorkers say New York City is headed on the wrong track:

Since Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor, this is the first time a majority of registered voters in the city — 53% — report that the Big Apple is moving in the wrong direction. However, 38% think it is traveling along the right path. Nine percent are unsure.

When Marist last asked this question in October, 47% said the city was pointed in the wrong direction, 40% thought it was on the proper trajectory, and 13%, at the time, were unsure.

So Moneybags bought himself a plummeting approval rating and a tarnished legacy with his Bloomberg Blizzard Disaster performance.

I watched parts of the press conference he had at City Hall yesterday to talk about the city's preparations for snow.

He was prickly, sarcastic, and testy. The overall coverage on Channel 2 was negative. One segment New Yorkers sarcastically wondered if Bloomberg could handle the 2-5 inches of snow expected to fall today. The next segment, the mayor refused to say where he was on Christmas and took heat from the reporters.

It's interesting to see how the kid glove treatment for Bloomberg is gone. A while back, reporters would have alluded to his prickliness, but they wouldn't have focused an entire news segment around it. Post-Bloomberg Blizzard, the media coverage is getting very, very negative.

Can Bloomberg pull out of this?

Sure.

A good performance on snow removal the rest of the year, an economy that continues to turn around, handling some disaster other than a snow storm well, and maybe Bloomberg's ratings turn around again.

But I suspect he has lost some people for good no matter what he does. The curtain was drawn back onto what an arrogant, clueless prick he can be and with his refusal to say where he was Christmas or come up with a good explanation for why he left nobody in charge of emergency operations before the blizzard, I don't think he's getting those people back.

Couple the snow mess with CityTime and Cathie Black and you have three major mistakes by this mayor in just the first year of his third term. It's not quite like the third term Koch scandals yet, but if anything negative comes out of the crime stat audit or if the CityTime scandal expands to other city agencies (like the DOE), Bloomberg could yet be ridden on the rails.

He's a crafty one, however, and sneaky as hell, so I wouldn't bet any money on that happening.

But right now, Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating is in Joel Klein territory.