Most in Ocasio-Cortez's District Opposed Her on Amazon Deal, Poll Finds
April 10 2019 - 5:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Jimmy Vielkind
A majority of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's constituents view
her favorably, but they disagree with her opposition to Amazon.com
Inc.'s former plan to build a new campus in Queens, a poll released
Wednesday shows.
The Siena College Research Institute poll found 57% of the
freshman Democrat's constituents believed Amazon's decision to
cancel its plans was bad for New York, compared to 32% who said it
was good. That's roughly the same as the 58% of respondents who
said Gov. Andrew Cuomo was right to try to resurrect the deal, in
which city and state officials offered the company up to $3 billion
in incentives in exchange for a promise of 25,000 jobs.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents neighborhoods near the
proposed campus site in the Long Island City neighborhood, opposed
the deal. She said the incentives were "extremely concerning," and
believed government resources should have been focused on health
care and infrastructure.
Other polls by Siena have shown a majority of voters in the
state supported the deal. Amazon announced on Feb. 14 it was
abandoning its plans. Mr. Cuomo said the development would
diversify the economy and yield more tax revenue over time than the
amount of pledged incentives would cost.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal progressive during her first
months in Congress, using social media to spread her message well
beyond the 14th District, which covers parts of the Bronx and
Queens. She was known to more of the 600 registered voters surveyed
than both Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a presidential candidate who has
been in the Senate for 10 years, and former Rep. Joe Crowley, who
represented the district for 20 years before Ms. Ocasio-Cortez
defeated him in a Democratic primary.
A quarter of the poll respondents said they, like Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez, identified as a Democratic Socialist.
Voters in the district view Ms. Ocasio-Cortez favorably by a
52-33% margin, and approve of the job she's doing by 47-42%. The
poll, which was conducted last week and has a 4.3-point margin of
error, showed 41% of respondents support the Green New Deal that
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has espoused, compared to 20% who oppose it. The
Green New Deal would dramatically overhaul the country's energy and
transportation infrastructure to reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions.
The poll showed broader support for some of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's
other policy positions. Seventy-five percent of voters surveyed
said they support opening the Medicare program for all citizens,
76% support free tuition at public universities across the U.S. and
73% said they support a federal guarantee of a job that pays a
living wage.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 10, 2019 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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