Sixty-nine percent of the voters surveyed disapproved of how the State Legislature is handling its job, and 67 percent were not pleased with how the State Senate is handling its job. That chamber is embroiled in a leadership fight.

Regardless, the poll finds, voters would support returning their state senator to office by a margin of 48-27 percent.

"Dysfunctional? That could be the automatic adjective for Albany.   Maybe we should find a more vivid word," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Bill Cunningham has a more vivid way of putting it in this essay on Huffington Post, in which he claims comparing legislators to clowns as an insult to clowns.

"To compare these hard-working, well trained professionals to our state senate is an insult to anyone named Bozo, Clarabelle, or Emmett Kelly," Cunningham writes. "In fact, Jerry Lewis, America's internationally recognized symbol of zany comedy, should lead a protest march on Albany. These senators are giving clowns, comedians, and con men a bad name."