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CAPITOL
Discredited incumbents still safe
Frustration and scandal seem to have little real impact

BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press

    You click open your job review from the boss and it says you’re doing a lousy job, you aren’t up to making tough decisions, and you’re an embarrassment.
    That’s the review New Yorkers gave the state Legislature last week in a Quinnipiac University poll that found almost half of New Yorkers finally said even their senator deserves to be canned.
    That led to headlines like: “Voters mad as hell,” “Throw the bums out,” and “Good Riddance!”
    The outrage came after the Senate gridlocked for a month this summer in a messy power struggle. It came after lawmakers raised more than $4 billion in taxes and fees on New Yorkers already snared in recession, while leaving powerful special interests mostly untouched. It came after three years that saw the comptroller resign for misusing staff, a governor quit in a prostitution scandal, the Senate Republican leader retire amid an FBI investigation, and a veteran Queens assemblyman plead guilty to fraud involving people doing business with the state.
    Still, if you’re a New York lawmaker and you get that kind of job review, you can probably relax.
    Despite the serial scandals and resulting nationwide ridicule, the Quinnipiac poll found 40 percent of New Yorkers think their legislator should be re-elected in 2010.
    “What struck me is they are split about being embarrassed,” said Doug Muzzio, a politics professor at Baruch College. “I would have expected they’d be mortified. ....................>>>>....................>>>>............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01703&AppName=1

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• 77 percent do not think Paterson can successfully eliminate the state’s current deficit without raising taxes and fees. Seventeen percent said he can; 7 percent were undecided or had no opinion.