In his weekly press conference earlier today, Eric Adams brushed off questions concerning his opponents in this year’s mayoral elections, amidst the results of a recent poll which found the incumbent mayor behind other hopefuls, including former governor Andrew Cuomo, who has not officially announced his candidacy despite months of talk from allies.
The poll was first reported by POLITICO today and commissioned by the Progressives for Democracy in America, a 501(c)(4) founded in 2021 that is affiliated with the 20-year-old Progressive Democrats of America. The study carried out by the D.C.-based Hart Research Associates surveyed 800 likely Democratic voters in the city, finding that 32% of respondents listed Cuomo as their preferred candidate in the upcoming ranked-choice primary election. Following Cuomo are the former and current city comptrollers Scott Stringer and Brad Lander at 10% and 8% respectively, state Senator Jessica Ramos at 7%, and Mayor Adams tied for fifth place at 6% with Democratic socialist state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.
“Polls don’t make mayors, people do,” the mayor said when asked to respond to the results. He also appeared to take shots at Cuomo’s personal background, remarking that “some people are born on third base, I wasn’t even born on the team.” Former governor Andrew Cuomo is the son of Democratic governor Mario Cuomo, who held the office for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. Andrew Cuomo served two terms starting in 2011, but resigned in 2021 in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal concerning the treatment of staff in his office. In an exclusive interview with La Voce last week, Mayor Adams expressed confidence in his support among Italian-Americans despite the Cuomo family’s legacy and deep roots across the state, particularly thanks to the ranked-choice voting system. “Some are going to have me number two on their ballot because of ranked-choice voting, because Andrew is in the race, that’s quite possible,” he said. “But I have to sell what I have done in the city, and I know I’ll be ranked somewhere among Italian-Americans in the city.”
Mayor Adams also challenged policy proposals from his opponent and current city comptroller Brad Lander, who recently unveiled a plan which he says could get most if not all, of homeless New Yorkers with severe mental illness off the streets in two years. His plan follows the model of programs in other cities like Houston, which has embraced a “housing first” model of dealing with homelessness. Adams recalled Lander’s opposition to his clearing out homeless encampments, and described his plans as “not realistic.” The “housing first” program in Houston is the main factor behind a reduction of over 60% in the city’s rate of homelessness since 2011, one of the few cities to buck an overall spike across the nation, including New York City.
The mayor also told journalists in today’s briefing that he was going through “déjà vu,” comparing his current situation to last election cycle, where he found himself trailing then front-runner Andrew Yang by double-digits in February 2021 before turning things around. “Whenever you hear these polls come out, just always think of this,” Adams said, holding up a print-out of a POLITICO article from that time with the headline “Andrew Yang opens up huge lead in race to be next New York City mayor.”
The mayor’s strong flow of political donations cratered last fall after federal corruption charges were filed against him. In today’s briefing, he claimed that his “support is still there,” although campaign data that would back that up has not yet been released to the public.
