ALBANY, N.Y. -- Six months after he was elected to a second term, Governor Andrew Cuomo is garnering some of his lowest approval ratings since first taking office in 2011.
New York Democrats convened in Albany on Monday during a particularly challenging year for Cuomo, the defacto head of the party. A Marist College poll found his approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 37 percent.
Former Governor David Paterson says every governor hits a rough patch, and blames those sagging numbers on the recent arrests of Albany's top legislative leaders.
"Unfortunately, when you have a number of scandals and we've had some public scandals, if you're in the vicinity, there can be an effect," Paterson said.
Nevertheless, Cuomo's education policies, such as making it harder to for teachers to obtain tenure this year, has outraged a key Democratic Party constituency: the state teachers union.
"I understand that not everybody is going to agree with what the governor does, but you can't fight the results he's achieved and I hope that people who may have drawn conclusions will listen to all of what he's saying," Paterson said.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul also insists Cuomo remains committed to public education and public school teachers.
"He was a strong believer in giving parents choice, but that doesn't not mean we aren't fully behind the 85 percent of children in New York state who go to public schools," said Hochul, D-New York.
Cuomo is pushing forward on further changes: He wants to lift the cap on charter schools and create a $150 million education tax credit that is aimed at spurring donations to public schools and scholarships benefitting private education. The measures are opposed by the teachers unions.
Cuomo said last week that, "The political forces in Albany that are protecting the bureaucracy don't want to see this happen."
The New York State United Teachers union on Monday launched a 10-day radio ad campaign opposing the education tax credit proposal.