ALBANY — With New York lawmakers poised to begin a new legislative session in three weeks, voters are signaling they want public safety and the cost of living to be top priorities.

That was the finding of a new Siena College poll taken one month after Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, was elected to her first full term.

The poll found that 57% of upstate voters whose opinions were sampled believe the state is headed in the wrong direction. Among suburban voters, 55% said the state is taking the wrong path, while in New York City that view was shared by only 42% of the respondents.

On another measure, 51% of upstate residents said they have an unfavorable view of Hochul. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s unfavorable rating among upstate residents was pegged by Siena at 55%.

Statewide, Hochul and Biden were rated favorably by 45% and 48% of respondents, respectively, the poll reported.

Commenting on the survey results, Siena pollster Steve Greenberg said: “Voters can’t say it clearly enough. They’ve said crime is a serious problem for a year; they see it as a serious problem now; they don’t think Hochul has made progress on making communities safer; and, they want their elected officials to address it as a top priority in 2023.”

Public safety was a major theme of Hochul’s challenger in the governor’s race, Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-Long Island, while Hochul focused on her support for abortion protections and tighter restrictions on firearms.

While the percentage of voters who now have a favorable view of Hochul has dipped slightly since the election, the Siena survey reported those who view Zeldin favorably jumped from 37% before the election to 46% this month.

Veteran New York campaign strategist Hank Sheinkopf said Zeldin may be faring better now because interest in former President Donald Trump has waned since the election. Hochul unleashed a barrage of television attack ads portraying Zeldin as a Trump disciple who had refused to certify election results from two states in the 2020 presidential election.

As for the overall Siena results, Sheinkopf said, “Crime and decline are still the issues. The message from voters is to make change in Albany or pay the price in the next election.”

All 213 state legislative seats are up for grabs again in 2024, coming on the heels of last month’s election in which Republicans had one of their best outings in years, though they remain a distinct minority in both chambers.

When he travels across his legislative district, Sen. Peter Oberacker, R-Otsego County, said he regularly hears constituents signal their strong support for allowing judges to have the flexibility to set bail for defendants assessed to be a potential danger to communities.

“I’m not surprised by this poll,” Oberacker said, noting he hopes his colleagues work to revamp the more lenient criminal justice policies advanced by downstate Democrats over the past three years.

“We’ve heard from everybody in law enforcement and from the judicial side of things, and yet, we don’t see any action,” Oberacker noted.

Hochul’s 43% unfavorable rating is a new high for her, Greenberg pointed out, adding the coming session opens a door for her to try to broaden her appeal to New Yorkers by hitting “the reset button and reintroduce herself to voters outside of a messy midterm transition and a fiercely fought election.”

He was referring to the fact that Hochul got the job in the first place in August 2020 when she was lieutenant governor and then Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned while lawmakers were investigating allegations of sexual harassment lodged against him. Cuomo denied those allegations.

Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College, said he believes most voters are focused much more now on national issues than the doings in Albany.

He also said voters are likely stressed by entering the holiday season, with economic worries on their minds. In that context, Sherrill said, Hochul’s numbers “are not that bad.”

“This is a snapshot at the wrong time,” he said. “It’s the holiday season.”