NYers back court on health care overhaul

New Yorkers by a wide margin support the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the health care overhaul and want the law fully implemented, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Siena Research Institute.

The poll found that registered voters agree with the high court's decision by a margin of 45 percent to 28 percent.

Fifty-three percent of voters want to see the law fully implemented, compared with 37 percent who want to see it repealed. "It's a very partisan issue," said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. "You've got to go deeper because what you see is three quarters of Democrats want it implemented, three quarters of Republicans want it repealed, independents [are] almost divided down the middle."

Greenberg added: "Overall New York supports it, but these numbers on the whole don't reflect the national [picture]." In a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-1 margin, support for the overhaul is higher than it is nationally.

The poll also found that:

54 percent would like to see Democrats win control of the state Senate, 38 percent want Republicans to continue to hold their majority.

42 percent want to re-elect their state senators, while 38 percent would prefer someone else.

55 percent would vote to re-elect Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Seventy-six percent of voters said they either don't know or have no opinion of Gillibrand's Republican challenger, Wendy Long.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo continues to enjoy high approval ratings with 69 percent holding a favorable view compared with 22 percent who view him unfavorably.

The poll surveyed 758 registered voters from July 10-15 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.