Thread: Poll: New Yorkers oppose Spitzer's license plan

Poll: New Yorkers oppose Spitzer's license plan

10/15/2007, 5:21 p.m. ET

By MICHAEL GORMLEY
The Associated Press


ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Armed with results of the first poll on Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, Senate Republicans on Monday sought to delay the policy's implementation and warned they could dismantle it in budget negotiations beginning in January.

But Spitzer, who said he can start the policy in December without the Legislature, was undeterred by a Senate hearing in which his Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner was cross-examined without break for four hours.

"The policy change is critical to ensuring the safety and security of New Yorkers and the governor would never abdicate this foremost obligation simply to appease those peddling fear and hatred," Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said after the hearing.

Seventy-two percent of voters in Monday's Siena College poll said they were opposed to "the governor's plan to allow undocumented immigrants to get New York driver's licenses." Twenty-two percent of those polled supported the plan of the once widely popular governor, according to the Siena Research Institute.

Spitzer's DMV Commissioner David J. Swarts defended the plan Monday as a way to get hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants already in New York into the state data base. Spitzer said that will make the streets safer for drivers, reduce auto insurance rates, and provide a better tool for law enforcement and homeland security to track illegal immigrants.

He noted several homeland security and law enforcement experts support it.

"Fear is a major element in the misrepresentation of this issue," Swarts told senators. He described Republicans' criticism as "hysterical rhetoric" that was "deliberately misstated."

The New York Immigration Coalition accused the Senate Republicans of loading the hearing, billed as the first of several, with opponents of Spitzer's plan. Coalition Executive Director Chung-Wha Hong called it a "hateful anti-immigrant agenda."

The poll also found Spitzer, elected in November with a record share of the vote, has taken a big hit in his popularity and approval. He scored his lowest numbers yet during the last three months of political conflict with the Senate's Republican majority.

Fifty-four percent of those polled said they had a favorable opinion of the governor, while 36 percent view him unfavorably and 10 percent didn't know or had no opinion. That's down from 75 ercent approval in January.

"The voters' message to the governor is clear: `No, no, no,'" Siena spokesman Steven Greenberg said. "Opposition to the Spitzer proposal is intense, with 41 percent strongly opposing it and only 7 percent strongly supporting it."

Although three years from facing re-election, the numbers to Spitzer are "very important from an ability to use the bully pulpit and the powers of persuasion," Greenberg said.

Spitzer blamed the numbers on a "misunderstanding of the facts."

"It's what happens when you govern and make tough decisions and you do things that you believe are right and don't govern based on polls, which is never what I've done," Spitzer said at a separate event in the Albany suburb of Colonie.

"When I was attorney general, for all eight years I brought cases that people said, 'Oh you're crazy to do it. You're bringing cases against major institutions.' And I did and they were screaming and shouting," he said. "At the end of the day, when what you do is right, I have confidence that the public will be supportive and I'm sure that will happen."

Republicans who forced the public hearing on Spitzer's plan weren't persuaded.

"For the sake of good public policy, halt the program now," said Sen. Thomas Libous, a Binghamton Republican in concluding the hearing. "At this rate, if we don't have good discussion, I can see the budget ending up in December of next year — maybe."

The 2007-08 budget is due April 1. But Swarts told senators that the administration would likely need the Legislature's approval to buy some of the new anti-fraud technology in Spitzer's plan. Swarts said added revenue will surpass the initial cost.

In a related move, the state on Sept. 24 stopped noting "temporary visitor" on driver's licenses issued to immigrants on temporary visas because the license would remain valid as many as six or seven years after a visa could expire, Swarts said. State officials noted this is one of many ways illegal immigrants have always held or secured driver's licenses.

Republican senators said Monday that putting drivers' licenses in the hands of illegal immigrants will lead to using the document to vote. Although a driver's license is supposed to only prove identity, not citizenship, it is often used to prove legal residence and can lead to other documents such as was done by several terrorists in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the senators argued.

Driver's licenses, however, haven't been used to prove citizenship to vote. To register to vote a person signs an affidavit, subject to prosecution for perjury, that he or she is a U.S. citizen, said Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections. A driver's license is used to confirm identity at the polls.

Sen. Vincent Leibell, a Dutchess County Republican, opened the hearing by putting Spitzer's proposal in the context of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We realize New York and American were asleep," he said. "We resolved we'd never be so unprepared again."

Under the plan, Leibell said, "Osama bin Laden could get a license."

"I think we'd catch that one right away," Swarts said, in an attempt at humor that fell flat with Republicans. "As a columnist said, at least we'd know where he was."

Siena polled 620 registered voters by phone between Oct. 7-10. The poll has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.


AP writers Jessica Pasko and Valerie Bauman contributed to this report from Colonie and Albany.


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http://www.silive.com/newsflash/metro/i ... st=simetro

Spitzer just committed POLITICAL SUICIDE. Hasta la bye bye, Spitzer!!

But Spitzer, who said he can start the policy in December without the Legislature, was undeterred by a Senate hearing in which his Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner was cross-examined without break for four hours.



Forgot where I heard this quote, but as far as Spitzer is concerned, "That's arrogance gone wild..."[/i]

What a fool he is.

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