Eric Adams took shots at his two closest Democratic primary rivals in Tuesday’s off-topic press conference at City Hall, calling out Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s “pie in the sky ideas” and Andrew Cuomo’s policies during his stint as governor. When it came to his own campaign, however, the incumbent mayor refused to answer whether he would be meeting the petitioning deadline for Democratic primary candidates, adding to mounting speculation that he will run as an independent candidate.
The mayor’s press conference was held the same day that Mamdani released his public safety plan. In line with his overall leftist politics, he calls for reforms that would not expand the NYPD, as most of his rivals have, but instead buttress other city agencies and create a new one – the Department of Community Safety – in order to lighten the load currently being taken on by police. “Right now, we’re relying on [the police] to deal with the failures of our social safety net,” Mamdani’s plan reads. “This department will pioneer evidence-proven approaches that have been successful elsewhere in the country.” Part of Mamdani’s overall platform includes tax increases on corporations from 7.25% to 9%, telling the New York Post earlier this month that the change “would pay for the bulk of this agenda.”
Adams called his closest rival, who is sitting one point ahead of him in the latest poll, “defund-the-police Mamdani,” and dismissed his plan to fund social programs with higher taxes, saying that it “hurts the economy.” Adams pointed to his own successes, like the fact that the city’s bond rating has improved under his tenure and that he managed to control the migrant crisis without federal assistance, which cost the city over $7 billion. “These pie in the sky ideas that people are running prior to coming into the real work of running a city of this level of complexity… it’s just unrealistic,” the mayor said of the 33-year-old Assembly Member’s plans. While these macro-scale demonstrations of his management abilities hold water, the cost of living crisis continues unabated and the poverty rate has climbed under Adams’ tenure to 25%, or 2 million New Yorkers.
The mayor also went on a lengthy tirade against Andrew Cuomo, lambasting his management of various issues under his tenure, from the 2019 bail reform legislation that leaders claim has led to higher criminal recidivism, to his management of the COVID-19 pandemic, for which he is still being criticized over what many believe were thousands of preventable deaths. He also had notes for how the former governor handled an exclusive with the editorial board of the New York Post two weeks ago, which featured pictures of him sharing a presentation on a projection screen. “How do you go to an editorial board meeting with a PowerPoint,” the mayor sniped. “They must have said ‘man, what is this guy doing?’ This is not a game.”
Despite all the critique he had for his Democratic opponents, Adams did not commit to running against them in the party’s primary. Asked if he would be filing the petitions necessary to run in that race, the mayor appeared lost for words and punted: “as the process moves forward… you’ll see our announcement as they go forward.” Just last week, his answer on the same question was far more straightforward: “I’m running as a Democrat. And we have petitions on the street.”
Candidates running in the Democratic primary must turn in petitions with 3,750 signatures from registered voters by April 3rd. The mayor’s noncommittal response raises the possibility that he could run as an Independent, which has a much later deadline of May 27th.
