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Tag: Eric Adams

  • Mamdani co-signs comeback of nonprofit property COPA bill vetoed by Adams | amNewYork

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    A hotly debated housing bill that would give nonprofits first dibs on property purchases — vetoed by former Mayor Eric Adams hours before he left office — is likely to get a new chance to pass under the Mamdani administration. Its sponsor is already anticipating lawsuits attempting to stop it. 

    The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act would keep housing in the hands of the community and curb landlords selling to big property groups, say advocates and bill sponsor Council Member Sandy Nurse. 

    It does so, Nurse said, by giving qualified groups like community land trusts the right of first refusal on distressed residential buildings with four or more units. The nonprofits have 25 days to submit a statement of interest, then 80 days to make an official offer on the property before other buyers can take a shot at it.

    Since the city began considering COPA five years ago, it’s faced sharp criticism from the real estate industry and Republican council members who say it would open the city up to legal challenges. Critics argue the bill violates private property rights, a landlord’s right to freedom of contract and the Constitution’s takings clause.

    Nurse said she’d been told by the city’s Law Department her legislation was legally defensible before the council passed it with a 31-10 vote in December. 

    However, the city’s Law Department later reached out to Nurse to raise legal red flags — doing so days before she was set to bring COPA back to the floor in an attempt to override Adams’ last-minute veto. Nurse called the move “extremely frustrating” and an example of the “chaotic nature and disorganization” of the Adams administration.

    Now, Nurse said, she and her team are working with the Law Department and “seeking to propose some new language to address the concerns.” She declined to share what those concerns were, as discussions were still ongoing.

    “The Law Department told us the bill was defensible, but they wanted to make it even stronger … because of the amount of attention on the bill and because the real estate industry spent so much time trying to oppose the legislation,” Nurse said. “We want to make sure that it is as strong as possible in anticipating somebody wanting to sue the council over the legislation.”

    The council member said she had “every intention to pass this legislation,” and was working as quickly as possible to reintroduce it.  

    Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who supported COPA on the campaign trail, said he’d work with the council to ensure it passes. 

    His office told amNewYork Law the act would give tenants “a real opportunity to shape the future of their homes.”

    “Our administration looks forward to working closely with Council Member Nurse to reintroduce and pass the legislation,” a spokesperson for Mamdani said in a statement.  

    The future of COPA

    City Council Speaker Julie Menin brought up the COPA legal advising mishap when she spoke earlier this month at the confirmation hearing for Steve Banks as head of the Law Department. 

    Menin said the failure demonstrated that the council needs proactive legal opinions on bills.  

    “It put the council in a very difficult situation where, weeks after the bill passes, we are hearing red flags from the Law Department,” Menin told Banks. “That cannot happen again.”

    Banks promised the speaker nothing similar would happen under his leadership, adding that he had already spoken with Nurse about the bill and that they had “talked about ways to try to move forward” with the legislation. When asked for more details after the hearing, the Law Department said it couldn’t comment on privileged communications. 

    Menin, who abstained from voting on COPA last year, didn’t respond to questions from amNewYork Law regarding the nature of the red flags and whether she’d support the bill upon reintroduction.

    Some real estate attorneys aren’t convinced that just a few changes would prevent the bill from legal challenges. 

    Sherwin Belkin, a founding partner of real estate firm Belkin, Burden & Goldman, said the entire concept of the bill is problematic. 

    “I think the notion of the state deciding who a property owner can sell its property to raises significant legal and constitutional questions regarding private property and contract rights,” he said.

    “The property owner may feel that [another] party, not the nonprofit, has greater economic stability, will be a better partner to align itself with on sale … This is restricting that,” Belkin continued. “This is saying that’s not really for the seller to determine, but in fact, that’s very much part of private property rights and contractual rights — to be able to determine the stability and feasibility of the party with whom you’re about to enter into a contract.”

    Elena Rodriguez, a staff attorney for the New Economy Project, which has advocated for COPA, shot down arguments that the bill would violate private property or contract rights. She emphasized the bill only applies when an owner is voluntarily selling a building, and said landlords are free to turn down a nonprofit’s offer and sell to someone else — they just have to give the nonprofit the chance to make the first offer.  

    If a landlord does receive an offer from another buyer after they reject a nonprofit’s, they must offer the community group a chance to match it, and then sell to the group if it does. If no nonprofits express interest within the initial 25-day window, a property owner is automatically exempt from granting them the right of first refusal.   

    “Courts have repeatedly upheld regulations that govern the process of a voluntary sale, and similar laws in San Francisco and elsewhere have taken effect without being struck down,” Rodriguez said. 

    She added that COPA would only operate prospectively, meaning it wouldn’t interfere with any property actively under contract if passed, and it doesn’t regulate a building’s sale price.  

    Market concerns 

    Critics of COPA have also raised concerns that the law would slow down property sales, thus potentially driving down prices and the pool of would-be buyers.

    That could create an argument that COPA violates the Constitution’s takings clause, which prevents government overreach into private property, because the procedural hurdles installed by the government could hurt property owners’ return on investment. But even some real estate attorneys say that might be a stretch. 

    Belkin said the constitutional claim is significantly weaker than the property rights path. 

    “That argument, I think, is a little more difficult, because you have to demonstrate that there has been an economic injury caused by the bill,” Belkin said. “It would be more speculative at this early time to be able to demonstrate that …but the argument would be that, by so limiting the pool of prospective purchasers, the purchase price will be negatively impacted.”

    He and other attorneys said a potential fix might be to reduce the timeframes for nonprofits to make their offers, but Nurse said that wouldn’t be happening. The windows are already shorter than she initially wanted them to be, and it’s necessary to give nonprofits enough time to properly consider making an offer and to gather the necessary funds.

    “The real estate industry … wants unfettered access to any potential property. They don’t want to be subject to any interventions that, personally, we think would help address the housing crisis,” Nurse said. “This legislation is meant to create a small window of opportunity for our trusted, mission-driven affordable housing providers to take these properties, purchase them, do light repairs and rehabilitation if needed, and provide safe, affordable housing that New Yorkers can live in.” 

    “It’s not a guarantee, it’s just an opportunity,” Nurse continued. “It’s a small window of time, and once that window is closed, the private sector can continue to move forward with their mission, which is to make as much money as possible.”

    COPA is expected to come up for a vote within this legislative session and will need only a simple majority vote to be sent to Mamdani’s desk.

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    Isabella Gallo

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  • Departing NYC Mayor Adams Next Wants to Fix Education, Violence, and Antisemitism with Crypto

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    Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams loves crypto. He created a mayoral “Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain,” and supposedly had his first three paychecks converted to bitcoin so the city could even pay him in crypto.

    And in remarks made Monday at what was probably his final press conference as mayor, he indicated that his love affair with crypto is only intensifying. In fact, Adams is somehow going to fix violence, education, and antisemitism with crypto, he says.

    When speaking about next steps toward the end of the presser, he got off to a rocky start: “I’m excited about the next step. I cannot tell you … I’ve said over and over again, anyone would like to finish a job that you started.” And then he uttered three or four partial sentences I truly could not parse. Then he got his answer back on track with the following:

    “I want to do my book. I’m going to go back to school. But I also want to use cryptocurrency to go after violence, educate our children, and really deal with antisemitism that we’re seeing globally. So I’ve always wanted to uplift families and children, and I think this is a great opportunity to use technology to do so. And also I have a great deal of opportunities I’ve always wanted to do.”

    What does he mean? Is he turning his time machine back to 2021 and starting a DAO to tackle violence, education, and antisemitism? Is he just donating a bunch of crypto to charities related to those causes? Is he creating his own memecoin? For now, I think it’s best to assume he was just expressing himself artistically at this press conference, and that the statement was a sort of Etsy-style mood board in spoken word form. 

    Incidentally, 2025 was an absolutely massive year for lobbying in the crypto industry. According to the Hill, by July of this year no fewer than 27 crypto companies had filed their initial lobbying disclosures. 

    Also in July, Politico reported that Coinbase erected branded vending machines on the National Mall and distributed 5,000 Coinbase chocolate bars, with a representative explaining that they were trying to “create a sugar rush for crypto across the Capitol.”

    If they’re looking for more ideas like that one—and I truly mean this—they’d be fools to hire anyone other than the inventor of the phrase “All my haters become my waiters when I sit down at the table of success.” And they don’t even have to pay him in real money.

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    Mike Pearl

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  • Editorial | Mayor-elect Mamdani must sweep away encampments, and apathy for homeless – amNewYork

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    Homeless individuals attempted to salvage their tent during a encampment sweep in Manhattan, Dec, 2022.

    Photo by Dean Moses

    The sight of homeless encampments on the streets of New York is truly tragic. No one should have to live out in the elements; the fact that people choose to live this way speaks volumes about the affordability and mental health crises in New York City.

    While acknowledging that tragedy, however, we must also realize that homeless encampments themselves are a blight on the neighborhoods in which they exist. Unkempt and poorly constructed, they instill a sense of apathy and disorder while sending an unspoken message to the rest of the population that can be summed up in one word: apathy. Any sense of apathy is a danger to the rest of the city, and an invitation for crime and other problems.

    Not long after taking office in 2023, Mayor Eric Adams sought to have homeless encampments disbanded. It was a controversial campaign, but a necessary one in order to reduce the sense of public apathy while also reaching out to people in desperate need of help.

    As Adams prepares to leave office, the incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, will soon be responsible for picking up that obligation to dissuade and dismantle homeless encampments and provide resources. Mamdani, however, has publicly stated he has no intention of continuing Adams’ encampment crackdown — and that’s a big mistake.

    On Tuesday, the incoming mayor said his administration would seek only to dismantle encampments as long as there are guaranteed indoor alternatives in shelters that are safe. Many homeless New Yorkers living on the streets have often said they do not feel safe in the city’s shelter system, and it’s going to be a challenge for Mamdani and his administration to shatter that perception.

    Even if an ideal shelter isn’t immediately available, the city cannot afford to do nothing when it comes to homeless encampments set up under bridges or in public parks. Just ignoring or looking the other way sends a horrible message, not just to the city but to those in the encampments themselves, many of whom already feel undesired and unwanted.

    Most New Yorkers recognize that many homeless people living on the streets and in our subway system suffer from mental illness. Often, those with extreme, untreated mental illness left to live on the street lash out against bystanders in a violent way. That risk grows if the city government looks the other way on street homelessness.

    Mayor-elect Mamdani has made addressing mental illness a campaign promise, and he must fulfill it from Day 1 in order to ensure that the mentally ill are cared for, not left to fend for themselves while living in tents on the streets. 

    He must also advance programs to create supportive housing and genuinely safe shelters that turn no one away and give no one an excuse to live on the streets. 

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    amNewYork

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  • FACT FOCUS: New York City ballots do not show proof of election fraud

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    NEW YORK (AP) — For many years, New York voters have found candidates listed twice, three times or even more on their ballots when they go to the polling booth.

    It isn’t an error — it’s a practice known as fusion voting that allows candidates to appear under multiple political parties.

    But such intentional duplications on the New York City ballot this year, along with other layout choices, have some outside observers around the country wondering whether they are seeing evidence of rigged voting in Tuesday’s widely-watched mayoral race.

    Billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who briefly served as a top advisor to President Donald Trump, was among those criticizing the ballots.

    “The New York City ballot form is a scam!” he wrote in an X post. “No ID is required. Other mayoral candidates appear twice. Cuomo’s name is last in bottom right.”

    But there is nothing amiss about the ballots, which are in keeping with New York’s voting laws.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: New York City ballots are proof of election fraud because some candidates appear twice and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is listed low in the order.

    THE FACTS: This is false. Candidates may appear more than once on ballots in New York if they are nominated by multiple political parties — a practice called fusion voting. Cuomo is in the eighth spot because he filed to run as an independent later in the process.

    New York, along with Connecticut, is one of few states where fusion voting is legal and commonly used. The practice has existed in New York since at least the mid-20th century. It is also legal in Oregon, Vermont and Mississippi.

    “This occurs pretty frequently and it enables the Democratic candidate to get the votes of people who don’t normally vote for Democrats and Republicans to get the vote of people who don’t vote Republican etc.,” said Richard Briffault, an expert on election administration and a professor at Columbia Law School, said of fusion voting in New York.

    Two mayoral candidates appear twice this year on New York City ballots. Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is also the nominee of the Working Families Party, while Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa is also the candidate for the independent “Protect Animals” party.

    Fusion voting does not allow candidates to receive more than one vote from the same voter, as voters may only vote for a candidate under one party.

    Cuomo is a Democrat, but is running as an independent under a new party he created called “Fight and Deliver” after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June.

    Under state law, there are currently four official parties on the ballot in New York — Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families Party — based on the number of votes their candidate received in the most recent gubernatorial and presidential elections. That vote count also determines the order they appear on the next ballot, from highest to lowest.

    Candidates must file a petition to run as an independent. Boards of elections determine the ballot order of independent parties, which must appear below the official parties.

    “In the case of the New York City Board of Elections, this is determined by the date and time stamp when the independent nominating petition was filed with that board,” said Kathleen McGrath, a spokesperson for the New York State Board of Elections.

    According to McGrath, Cuomo’s “Fight and Deliver” party was the fourth out of five independent parties to submit a nominating petition, meaning that Cuomo is listed eighth on the ballot.

    Mamdani is listed first under the Democratic Party and fourth under the Working Families Party. Sliwa appears second under the Republican Party and fifth under the “Protect Animals” party. Two other candidates running as independents — incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and attorney Jim Walden — dropped out of the race too late to be taken off the ballot.

    “In short, Cuomo is only listed once because he was only nominated once, and he is low in the order because no recognized political party nominated him,” said Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director at Verified Voting. “Surely Elon Musk has people who could have looked this up for him.”

    New York City does not require voters to show ID to vote unless they did not provide identification with their registration. The nation’s multilayered election processes provide many safeguards that keep voter fraud generally detectable and rare, the AP has reported.

    Representatives for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • Zohran Mamdani will win New York City mayoral election, CNN’s Decision Desk projects

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    (CNN) — Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose focus on working-class issues and personal magnetism attracted a diverse coalition of volunteers and supporters to propel a once-underdog campaign, will win New York City’s general election race for mayor, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.

    Mamdani beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a second time, shattering the political scion’s hopes of a comeback after his loss to Mamdani in the June Democratic primary. Also running in the general election was Republican Curtis Sliwa, who refused to end his campaign despite pressure from Cuomo and his supporters.

    Mamdani’s win marks a victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party at a time when national Democrats are divided over how to counter President Donald Trump. The president is himself a native New Yorker who has falsely derided Mamdani as a “communist” and suggested he’d “take over” the city if he is elected.

    The results are likely to echo far beyond New York City, elevating both Mamdani’s profile and platform, including his proposals to freeze the rent for New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, make public buses free to ride and provide universal childcare by taxing the wealthy.

    Mamdani’s win completes a meteoric rise a year after the state assemblyman launched his bid for mayor, promising to make the most expensive city in the country affordable for its working class.

    Who is Zohran Mamdani?

    Mamdani is a three-term state assemblyman who entered the mayor’s race as one of several apparent also-rans to what appeared to be Cuomo’s race to lose.

    Born in Uganda and first raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Mamdani moved to New York City when he was 7. He attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College. He is the son of Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, and Mira Nair, an Indian filmmaker whose credits include “Mississippi Masala” and “Monsoon Wedding.”

    Before becoming an assemblyman, Mamdani was a housing counselor and self-described C-list rapper who went by the name “Mr. Cardamom.” His short-lived music career was sometimes front and center in his opponent’s attack ads.

    The music video for “Nani,” a rap song where Mamdani pays homage to his grandma and New York City’s South Asian culture, also shows him shirtless, donning only an apron, looking directly at the camera while he rocks side to side. The image was plastered across anti-Mamdani campaign ads to poke fun at his past music career and his lack of governmental experience.

    Andrew Epstein, a campaign aide, noted that Mamdani’s rapping career helped him indirectly in his campaign.

    “An incredible asset for anybody seeking to run for office is bravery in the face of embarrassment and being able to push through the natural inclination many of us have not to kind of introduce themselves to strangers or do things in a kind of silly way in front of them,” Epstein told CNN.

    But Mamdani made a steady climb in the mayor’s race by producing a constant stream of social media videos, including interviews with voters who had supported Trump in 2024 due to the high cost of living. He ran a groundbreaking digital campaign in which he spoke in multiple languages and connected with supporters with a message anchored to affordability.  During the campaign, Mamdani, who natively speaks Urdu, released campaign videos in Bangla, Spanish, and Arabic.

    One of his most memorable viral videos tackled what the candidate referred to as “halal-flation.” He set out to interview street meat vendors about the high cost of running a street food business in New York City. With a mouthful of rice and halal meat, Mamdani detailed how an arcane permit system in the city is in part to blame for the prices of what should be cheap street food.

    “This was one of the coldest nights of the year, bitterly cold,” Epstein recalled recently. “We were downtown by Zuccotti Park near Wall Street and Zohran just asking people on the street, ‘Would you rather pay $10 or $8 for halal?’ People were pushing through trying to get home, you know, it was rejection over and over and over and over again, but it never fazed him.”

    Mamdani was cutting into Cuomo’s lead in public polling by the June primary. The city’s traditional power brokers, including the real estate and business sectors concerned with Mamdani’s democratic socialist identity, banded together in support of Cuomo and donated millions of dollars to anti-Mamdani super PACs. Business leaders argued Mamdani would drive wealthy New Yorkers out and discourage businesses from operating in the nation’s financial capital.

    Their push ultimately helped Mamdani cast his campaign as a fight between working-class people and billionaires.

    Still, his primary victory shocked much of the political world.

    “I don’t think the line is so much between progressives and moderates. It’s between fighters and fakers,” said city comptroller Brad Lander, who ran against Mamdani but allied with him under the primary’s ranked-choice voting system. “What Zohran is showing is that it’s worth putting up big bold ideas for change, standing up and fighting for them, and that’s pretty hopeful. Yes, he’s a democratic socialist, but he had a bold vision for the future of the city and that excited people.”

    The general election campaign

    After taking a vacation in Uganda to celebrate his wedding, Mamdani returned to a city mourning the deaths of New York police officer Didarul Islam and three others in a Midtown Manhattan shooting. He was confronted with his years of tweets criticizing the police, including references to law enforcement as racist and wicked and calling for them to be defunded.

    “I am not defunding the police. I am not running to defund the police,” he would tell reporters after meeting with Islam’s family, part of an overall shift away from anti-police rhetoric that culminated in recent weeks with his commitment to retain the current police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

    He also reached out to New York’s Jewish community, roiled by his criticisms of Israel’s government and questions about democratic socialism. Mamdani is an outspoken advocate for  Palestinian rights, a supporter of the movement to boycott and divest from Israel and a fierce critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    “I hate my choices,” said Cydney Schwartz, a 33-year-old liberal Democrat who has lived in Israel and was in line to cast an early vote. She declined to say who she chose.

    The last days of the campaign

    In the closing days of the campaign, Mamdani referred to the race as a choice between “oligarchy and democracy.”  His omnipresence on the campaign trail was on display during the last days of the race and in the lead-up to the last weekend of early voting in the city.

    As more than half a million New Yorkers turned out to cast their votes early, Mamdani was everywhere: He was in church in the morning, calling into radio shows midday, stopping into ethnic supermarkets in the outer boroughs, popping up on influencer live streams, joining a Union Square freestyle rap battle and capping off his Saturday with a whirlwind tour of the city’s nightclub scene.

    Paying homage to the city that never sleeps, Mamdani appeared to hardly do so either, stopping at six nightclubs in Brooklyn just to do it all over again on the last Sunday of early voting. He attended a church service with his parents, met campaign volunteers before stopping on the sidelines of the New York City Marathon, went to Queens for a meet-up with Gov. Kathy Hochul to cheer on the Buffalo Bills, and popped up in the nosebleeds of Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game.

    Cuomo also campaigned across the city. Notably, he tried to cut into Mamdani’s core support of South Asian and Muslim voters by highlighting Mamdani’s opposition to criminal penalties for prostitution. He also laughed when a radio host suggested Mamdani would cheer another 9/11 attack, drawing allegations from Mamdani and others that he was playing to Islamophobia. Cuomo denied he was doing so.

    Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams ended his independent bid and endorsed Cuomo. But Cuomo was unable to push Sliwa, the Republican nominee, out of the race, denying anti-Mamdani voters the chance to consolidate behind one opponent. Sliwa repeatedly and colorfully vowed he would die before making way for Cuomo, arguing he owed it to his supporters to keep running.

    For Cuomo, Tuesday’s results are likely a coda to a long and eventful political career. He was governor of New York for nearly 11 years before resigning in 2021 after he was accused of sexual harassment, allegations he has denied, and amid criticism of how his administration handled Covid-19 cases in nursing homes. Running for mayor, Cuomo leaned into his executive experience, often pointing out Mamdani’s short career in politics and relative lack of work history.

    He relaunched his mayoral bid as an independent after losing to Mamdani in June. He remained focused on public safety, promising to hire additional police officers and build more housing. Cuomo, who has a longstanding relationship with Trump, also sought to portray himself as the better candidate to fend off the president’s attacks on New York City.

    A history-making mayor

    Mamdani will be inaugurated on January 1, 2026. He inherits a deeply complex city home to 8.5 million people, a large bureaucracy, a municipal workforce of roughly 300,000 and a city budget of $115 billion.

    Mamdani will make history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor, the first South Asian to hold the office and one of the youngest mayors elected in modern times. He recently married Rama Duwaji, an artist of Syrian descent who was born in Texas and moved to New York City to complete a master’s degree in illustration. Duwaji skipped traditional campaigning alongside her husband on the trail and while it remains unclear whether she will have any role in his administration, at 28, she will be the first member of Gen Z to serve as New York City’s first lady.

    While Mamdani’s identity as both an immigrant and a South Asian New Yorker was central to his campaign, his connection to that community began to take shape long before he launched his run for City Hall. He first made national headlines in 2021 when he joined New York City cab drivers on a 15-day hunger strike seeking relief from excessive debt.

    Mamdani has a strong connection to the cab driver community in New York City, which is largely made up of immigrants, including thousands of South Asians who were among his fiercest supporters. In the last days of the campaign, Mamdani made a stop at LaGuardia Airport’s taxi stand at midnight, catching cabbies at shift change.

    “Without the night shift, there is no morning,” Mamdani told them.

    CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.

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    Gloria Pazmino and CNN

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  • Eric Adams to endorse Andrew Cuomo in NYC mayor’s race today, sources say

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    New York City Mayor Eric Adams will endorse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race to replace him, sources in both camps tell CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer. It comes just two days before early voting starts.

    Sources say Adams and Cuomo are working out a joint appearance that is expected to happen later Thursday. 

    The endorsement comes a night after Cuomo joined Adams courtside at the Knicks home opener following the final mayoral debate. 

    After participating in the second New York City mayoral debate, independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, right, sits with Eric Adams at the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 22, 2025.

    Al Bello / Getty Images


    Adams was running for reelection himself until late September, when he ended his campaign and exited the race. The outgoing mayor has been an outspoken critic of Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani and has been rumored to be considering throwing his support behind Cuomo for the past week or so. 

    Cuomo, who served as governor of New York from 2013 until he resigned in 2021, lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June and has since been consistently polling second heading into the general election. A poll earlier this week showed Mamdani holding onto a double-digit lead in a three-way race with Republican Curtis Sliwa. 

    The poll, meanwhile, found it would be neck-and-neck between Mamdani and Cuomo if Sliwa were to exit.

    Sliwa remains on the offensive about staying all-in

    Sliwa has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race, even parting with longtime WABC radio boss John Catsimatidis.

    “Why would I drop out of the race? You think Republicans are going to vote for Andrew Cuomo?” Sliwa said during the debate.

    Sliwa punched hard during an interview on CNBC on Thursday morning in an effort to prove he deserves to stay on the ballot, and blamed Adams for the state of the race.

    “He belongs in jail. He’s the reason there’s a Zohran Mamdani, because if he had done a halfway decent job he would’ve won. He’s an incumbent mayor. It would’ve been round two because I ran against him in 2021,” Sliwa said.

    Key takeaways from the NYC mayoral debate

    The candidates made their case to voters and covered a lot of ground during Wednesday night’s debate.

    They were asked to address the recent federal immigration raids and how to handle threats from the Trump administration.

    They also spoke about the NYPD and all agreed Commissioner Jessica Tisch should remain the department’s leader.

    Mamdani called out Cuomo over his sexual harassment scandal as governor, and both Cuomo and Sliwa questioned Mamdani about his experience for the job and his stance on Israel.

    In addition, the candidates offered up their ideas for mass transit and what should be done about the deadline to close Rikers Island.

    Mamdani also refused to take positions on crucial ballot measures that would address the very housing issues he’s centered his platform around.

    “What a shocker. Once he takes a position, he’ll change it anyway,” Cuomo said.

    Mamdani responded with a zinger of his own.

    “We heard from Donald Trump’s puppet, himself, Andrew Cuomo. He spent more money on a singing water fountain at LaGuardia Airport than he did on the average cost of an affordable housing unit,” Mamdani said. 

    Why did Mayor Adams drop out?

    Adams took office as the city’s 110th mayor in January 2022 after serving as Brooklyn borough president.   

    He ended his reelection campaign on Sept. 28, but his name will still appear on the ballot under an independent line. 

    It has been a tumultuous past year for the mayor and his administration. He was indicted on federal bribery charges, which he denied, that were later dropped. The dismissal also raised questions about his relationship with President Trump and the influence of the White House on City Hall. 

    Adams maintained his innocence and his ability to lead the city, launching his reelection campaign over the summer. But most polls showed him garnering single-digit support, well behind Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa.

    “Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” Adams said in a video announcement when he dropped out.   

    Independent candidate Jim Walden also ended his campaign and exited the race, but the Board of Elections ruled he missed the May 30 deadline to remove his name from the ballot. 

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  • Zohram Mamdani And NYC’s Legal Marijuana

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    Zohran Mamdani and NYC’s legal marijuana guide the public past rollout chaos toward real, legal access.

    He is the young, unapologetic state assemblymember who’s risen into the national spotlight. But what about Zohram Mamdani and NYC’s legal marijuana?  He has made his pro-legalization stance plain: he supports adult-use access along with social justice, expungement and community reinvestment rather having mom and pop business be part of the development of the rules. He’s even said publicly he’s purchased marijuana at licensed shops, a small detail signaling both personal comfort with regulated access and a political posture aligned with the legalization mainstream.

    RELATED: Gen Z Is Ditching Relationship Labels While Millennials…

    The mayoral race is mess with Mamdani up against current Mayor, Eric Adams, who was pre-pardoned by Trump who now has dropped out and former Mayor Andrew Cuomo who left office under of a cloudy of corruption and creepiness.  Most voters skim the news and lean toward the “doesn’t have a criminal stink on them.

    New York’s path to “legal” has been anything but tidy. The Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA) finally legalized adult-use cannabis in March 2021, creating a new Office of Cannabis Management and promising regulatory frameworks, licensing, community equity provisions and expungements. The law was a landmark — and also a beginning, not an endpoint — because implementation has been slow, complaints about licensing delays and enforcement inconsistencies have piled up, and neighbor-state competition (like New Jersey’s earlier retail rollout) complicated expectations.

    Photo by Chelsea London Phillips via Unsplash

    Mamdani’s position fits within a broader coalition pushing for access that repairs harms: civil-rights groups, harm-reduction advocates and national organizations such as the Drug Policy Alliance, ACLU and NORML have long argued legalization must be reparative — not just profitable. Those groups stress that simple legalization without aggressive expungement, community reinvestment and small-business access will reproduce the inequities of the old, punitive system. That’s the language Mamdani and like-minded progressives use when they talk about who legalization should benefit.

    But not everyone loves how legalization looks on the ground. Local polls and advocacy pushback — from neighborhood quality-of-life advocates to groups alarmed about public use and smell — have put political pressure on city leaders to tighten rules on public consumption, storefront density and odor mitigation. That tension matters for mayors and councilmembers who must balance reformist ideals with everyday governance.

    RELATED: Gen Z’rs upending things including weed and voting

    For younger voters, Mamdani’s pitch is familiar: legalization to provide access, criminal-justice reform plus sensible regulation. For older, more skeptical New Yorkers, it’s a test of whether lawmakers can turn a symbolic win into tidy, livable reality. The MRTA set the table; Mamdani and other progressive leaders now face the harder work of making sure legalization actually undoes past harms — not just creates new market winners.

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    Anthony Washington

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  • Former City Hall staffer pens book about ‘hidden relationship’ with Eric Adams

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    Six years before Eric Adams became mayor of New York City, he was romancing a woman he would later hire to be one of his own City Hall staffers. 

    “I mean there was a moment where he was like, ‘yeah, you’re going to be my wife,’” recalled Jasmine Ray, the author of the forthcoming book, “Political Humanity,” which details what she called her “hidden relationship” with Adams.

    Ray sat down with the NBC New York I-Team for her first TV interview since stepping down as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness, and Recreation. She said continues to have a friendship with the mayor, but her physical relationship with Adams lasted only about six months and ended by the beginning of 2016.   

    “He ended it,” she said. “In front of him, I said OK. And then I went to my car and I was boo-hooing like a baby,” Ray said.

    Contacted by the I-Team, Kayla Mamelak, a City Hall spokesperson, confirmed Ray and Adams had a personal relationship about a decade ago. But she stressed there had been no romantic engagements since the two started working together at City Hall.

    In an advance copy of the book, provided by Ray, she writes fondly of Adams, suggesting the embattled mayor is a “flawed hero” who was unfairly damaged by a thin corruption case brought by the Biden Department of Justice and later withdrawn by prosecutors appointed by President Trump.

    “When the 58-page indictment dropped, full of accusations about airline upgrades and straw donations, the charges themselves were relatively minor,” Ray wrote. “The press didn’t present them that way.”

    Ray also writes about her own role as a reluctant witness in the federal investigation that dogged her boss. 

    In one passage, she details the mayor pulling her aside on October 10, 2024, and warning her about federal agents who might be monitoring her.

    “You’re on a short list of people that have frequent contact with me. I just want you to be aware,” she wrote, quoting Adams.

    Once investigators began contacting her, she said her life became traumatic.

    “From October 2024 to March 2025, my life was hell,” Ray wrote. “I was subpoenaed four times, interrogated repeatedly, and gained 20 pounds from the stress.”

    Despite writing that one of her lawyers viewed her as a “star witness” in the case against Adams, Ray said she remains perplexed about how any of the information she provided could have implicated her boss and former lover in any sort of criminal activity. Though prosecutors charged Adams with trading political favors in return for more than $100,000 in travel upgrades, Ray said she’s not sure the alleged conduct rose to the level of criminality — even if it was in bad taste.

    “I don’t know if it’s illegal. I think it’s up to a judge to decide. I don’t know,” she said. “But it was tacky.”

    Adams has denied wrongdoing related to federal corruption investigations and his lawyer suggested the travel perks were nothing more than courtesies that airlines and hotels offer to all sorts of notable people. 

    Last year, the I-Team first reported on Jasmine Ray, revealing she not only worked as a staffer for the mayor, but that Adams also obtained a conflict of interest waiver allowing Ray to have a second job as a consultant for Brooklyn’s Cornerstone Daycare, a childcare facility that has city contracts. City Hall defended the arrangement, saying Ray’s dual role showed her ability to lead a government office while also serving youth outside her public capacity.

    Ray resigned her post in City Hall two days before Adams announced a suspension of his re-election campaign. She defended her record of accomplishments, including advocating to allow non-educators to coach public school athletic teams.

    “We’re saying if you are Michael Jordan or Derek Jeter, you can’t even volunteer to coach our high school kids.  That’s ridiculous,” Ray said.

    In closing her book, she makes a broader appeal that the public should look beyond headlines and recognize politicians as vulnerable people who shouldn’t be defined by perceived mistakes.

    “I wrote this book because I believe we need a new way forward—beyond cancel culture—toward something closer to accountability with compassion,” Ray wrote. “Political Humanity isn’t about power or perception. It’s about choosing to see the person beneath the title, the headline, the mistake.”

    “Political Humanity” is scheduled to be released as an e-book or audio book on Oct. 5.

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    Chris Glorioso

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  • What to know after New York City Mayor Eric Adams ends his reelection bid

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    What to know after New York City Mayor Eric Adams ends his reelection bid – CBS News










































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    New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday he’s ending his campaign for reelection. Riley Rogerson from NOTUS and Matt Brown from the Associated Press joined “The Takeout” to discuss the race and some of the day’s other top political headlines.

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  • Eric Adams Couldn’t Sleep on It Any Longer

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    Photo: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

    It was well past midnight on Sunday when Eric Adams finally walked down the echoing stairs of Gracie Mansion and, carrying a blown-up portrait of his mother, sat on a bottom step and looked into a camera to finally tell New Yorkers that he was dropping out of the mayoral race.

    The late hour was reflective of a mayor who always kept odd hours, but also of someone who was, aides and allies say, genuinely torn over whether or not he should keep campaigning, losing sleep and unable to come to a final decision.

    “He was just really struggling, really doing some soul-searching,” says John Catsimatidis, the supermarket magnate and a longtime Adams ally. “He just finally reached a ‘fuck you’ level and realized that he couldn’t turn it around.”

    In the end, there was no one moment that made the mayor finally wake up and see what everyone else has seen for a long time: that he has no better chance of being reelected than I do, or you do, or the ghost of Abe Beame does. Nearly every day brought a new round of rumors that his exit was imminent; the mayor dug his heels in farther, continuing to insist that he wasn’t going anywhere. Even as donors and allies privately prodded him to leave the race, Adams seemed to believe that once New Yorkers heard his story, compared his record on crime and the economy to anyone else’s, they would come around.

    But as September came to a close, Adams ceased campaigning. When asked on Saturday by Reverend Al Sharpton on MSNBC if there weren’t any circumstances upon which he would drop out, Adams for the first time demurred: “No, I can’t say that,” he told Sharpton, whose daughter endorsed Adams four years ago. “I’ve been sitting down with my team, having our pathways, finding out how we get the money into the coffers to do the commercials, to do the mailers, to pay for our team and staff,” he said. “We’ve got to make the right decision. I’ll make the right decision for the city of New York, a city I love.”

    There had been a moment when it looked as if Adams could have been a serious contender in this campaign. Just after the June primary, money was pouring into his campaign coffers as it looked unlikely that Andrew Cuomo could mount a comeback after his disastrous 13-point loss to Zohran Mamdani. There was talk in elite business circles of making a hostile takeover of the Adams operation, installing professional-grade political operatives and rallying Republicans and Democratic moderates around the mayor as the best “Stop Mamdani” option.

    But none of that came to pass. Eugene Noh, a political operative with a history of controversial behavior who had been removed from social media for inflammatory and racially inflected posts, was named campaign manager, and the rest of the operation remained bare-bones. Former staffers say that Frank Carone, the mayor’s former chief of staff and the official campaign chairman, was never much involved. Adams was denied matching funds by the city’s Campaign Finance Board ever since he was indicted on corruption charges last year, and he never seemed to want to spend the money he did have. Talks about joining the Trump administration in exchange for quitting the race went nowhere.

    Adams has been polling in the single digits throughout the campaign. He never hired his own pollster and maintained that public polls showing him in a distant fourth were rigged against him by pollsters secretly working for Cuomo. He believed that his numbers would change in August and September, but just as the campaign was preparing for a last push, longtime ally Ingrid Lewis-Martin was indicted in a lurid bribery scandal that involved allegedly trading away traffic-calming measures for a brief cameo in a Hulu TV show. Winnie Greco, another longtime aide, was busted for handing a reporter cash inside a potato-chip bag. “Everything was just a mess,” says one Adams campaign staffer. “The chaos kept on coming and coming, and there was no way to get past it.”

    It remains an open question how much Adams’s exit will impact the contours of the race. Private polling for the Cuomo campaign has shown that Adams supporters break 80 percent for the former governor, with the remaining going to Republican Curtis Sliwa, but public polling shows Cuomo getting closer to half of the Adams vote and the remaining going to Sliwa, Mamdani, or undecided. Wealthy donors who have largely sat out the campaign until now are expected to come out in a major way for Cuomo in the coming days. And a race that has been consumed by the question of “Is the mayor in or out?” now has space for other media narratives.

    Meanwhile, remaining Adams loyalists consider yesterday’s announcement to be not so much a retirement” but, as one aide put it, “a reset.” They believe the mayor’s record will look better in four years, especially if a Mayor Mamdani tries to bring his brand of democratic socialism to the capital of capitalism.

    “Look at Donald Trump,” says one aide. “He left in disgrace, and four years later, he is president of the United States. Anything can happen. This isn’t the end of Eric Adams.”


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    David Freedlander

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  • Eric Adams Drops Out of Mayor’s Race: Live Updates

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    Adams had next to no chance of winning. His languishing independent bid was marred by middling poll numbers, lackluster fundraising, and an often-present air of controversy.

    It’s an anti-climactic end to what once seemed to be a promising political story that began in 2021 as the then–Brooklyn borough president Adams defeated his party rivals handily in the mayoral primary, later declaring himself the “the face of the Democratic Party.” When he was sworn in on New Year’s Day in 2022, Adams became only the second Black mayor in the city’s history.

    But Adams’s sole term in office was marked by a seemingly endless stream of controversies, including federal raids on some of his top aides and appointees and a revolving door of resignations that saw the mayor name four police commissioners in the span of two years. The turmoil in City Hall reached a fever pitch last year when federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment against Adams, accusing the mayor of intentionally soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations and luxury travel benefits in exchange for favors in a scheme that extended back to Adams’s tenure as Brooklyn borough president in 2014. Adams long denied the allegations against him and resisted calls to resign from his seat.

    Adams’s exit from the race helps to thin the general-election field in a likely boon to former governor Andrew Cuomo, who is eyeing a rematch with Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who defeated him in the primary in June. Also in the race is Republican Party nominee and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who has said he intends to stay in the race, even if offered another role.

    The New York Times reported in early September that associates of Adams had been in touch with top Trump advisers, discussing a possible role for the mayor in the administration in lieu of continuing his reelection bid. But Adams had long denied the speculation that he was under consideration for a federal-government position, telling reporters, “I have a job. I’m running for my reelection, and I’m still doing that, and I’m looking forward to getting reelected.”

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    Intelligencer Staff

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  • Eric Adams Slips Out the Side Door

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    “I am the poster child of missteps,” Eric Adams told the Times, reflecting on the trajectory of his life, in 2021, when he was running for New York City mayor. Adams, who grew up in South Jamaica, Queens, in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, has long aspired to be regarded as a role model for working-class kids from the outer boroughs, particularly for Black youth. In time, though, his flaws became what he was known for. “I’m perfectly imperfect,” he has said on many occasions, when caught in the little lies, contradictions, and conflicts of interest that have shaped his political reputation. On Sunday, in a rambling eight-minute-and-forty-six-second video posted on X, Adams announced that he would no longer actively seek reëlection, making official what has been expected for quite a while—that, come January 1st, he will no longer be mayor—and cementing his latest and greatest missteps as his legacy.

    The roster of forgettable, failed, crooked, and compromised New York City mayors is a long one, and yet, even in that unproud tradition, Adams will stand out for some time. What began as “swagger”—a mayor out on the town, in ways not seen in decades—advanced to a blatant, unscrupulous disregard for the corruption and inside dealings of his friends, allies, and advisers. Despite overseeing a City Hall that pushed ahead major initiatives in housing and zoning, that provided temporary housing and other services to hundreds of thousands of migrants, and that containerized the city’s trash, among other accomplishments, Adams should perhaps be best remembered for the moment, in fall of 2023, when he surrendered his iPhone to the F.B.I. during a federal investigation into his campaign fund-raising, and the Mayor, ludicrously, claimed to have forgotten the passcode. The feds never did access the contents of that mobile device. Before the criminal-corruption case against Adams could proceed to trial, Donald Trump won the 2024 Presidential election, and Adams ended up cutting a deal with the Trump Administration to escape the charges. The price was coöperation—or at least silence—as the feds embarked on their immigration crackdown in New York. “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City,” Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said, during a joint appearance with Adams on Fox News, after the deal was done. “I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’ ”

    In the video announcing his dropout on Sunday, Adams, in a crisp white shirt, with his sleeves rolled up, descends a carpeted staircase in Gracie Mansion and perches a large photograph of his late mother, Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter, next to him on the steps. Once again, he refuses to take responsibility for making himself not just a legal and political liability for the city but a laughingstock as well. “I was wrongfully charged because I fought for this city, and, if I had to do it again, I would fight for New York again,” he says to the camera. His deal with Trump may have kept him out of prison, but it was obvious afterward, from the way his poll numbers dropped and his staff and allies fled, that his political career was over. That Adams remained mayor and kept his reëlection bid going, despite being so visibly and deeply compromised, belied his pledges, which he repeated again on Sunday, that “this campaign was never about me.”

    As he watched his support and funding dry up, the sixty-five-year-old Adams recently let his younger aides go wild online, posting cracked meme content in the hope of attracting the YOLO vote, but it was futile. Polls showed him consistently trailing not just Zohran Mamdani, the young socialist upstart that shocked the world by winning the Democratic primary in June, and Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor who has mounted a scorched-earth Independent bid after getting rinsed by Mamdani in the primary; he also slipped behind Curtis Sliwa, a red-beret-wearing former street vigilante and political gadfly who will appear on the Republican line. On Sunday, Adams acknowledged reality. “The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” he said. Shortly after, a spokesperson sent out a statement indicating that Adams planned to serve out the rest of his term but that “he will not be doing one-on-one interviews and appreciates the understanding of the press and the public,” as if Adams were a celebrity in the midst of a high-profile divorce.

    Months ago, it was Adams who predicted that this year’s mayoral campaign would have “so many twists and turns,” and would wind up being “one of the most exciting races we had in the history of this city.” It’s unclear what effect his exit will have, though. The persistent rumor in recent weeks has been that the Trump Administration is sizing him up for a job, perhaps in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or as the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, or some other equally absurd position. His withdrawal will please Mamdani’s powerful and deep-pocketed opponents, who have been trying to consolidate the field against the young candidate before November. Mamdani has a healthy lead in every poll, though, and has already beaten Cuomo badly once this year. In his exit video, Adams offered an implicit critique of Mamdani, warning that “our children are being radicalized,” and he has recently called Cuomo a “snake” and a “liar”—it is hard to see him getting behind either candidate in the campaign’s closing weeks, though Adams has been right about the twists and turns. A few days ago, when reports suggested that he was leaving the race, Adams angrily denied it numerous times. Why he decided to bow out now, as opposed to six days ago, or three months ago, or the moment the F.B.I. asked him for his iPhone, may go down as yet another inscrutable mystery in a political career whose passcode was forgotten a long time ago. Another misstep from a master of them. ♦

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    Eric Lach

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  • Eric Adams Drops Out of the New York Mayor’s Race

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    Following Donald Trump‘s election in 2024, Adams—who was elected as a Democrat in 2021—flew to Florida for lunch with the real estate magnate and attended his inauguration, moves seen by many as an effort to end the federal investigation against him. For many, it was the last straw in a mayoralty marked by crisis and controversy.

    This isn’t the last voters will see of Adams, however, as his announcement comes after the deadline to print the ballots for the November 4 election has already passed. Recent polling showed him in fourth place, trailing Mamdani, Cuomo, and even Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, the cat-loving Guardian Angels founder who is currently in the midst of his second consecutive mayoral campaign.

    Curtis Sliwa speaks during an anti-migrant rally and protest on August 27, 2023.

    Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

    Adams didn’t endorse any of his competitors on his way out the door, but he may have been alluding to Mamdani in his parting remarks, referring to “divisive agendas” and saying “beware of those who claim the answer is to destroy the very system we built together over generations. That is not change, that is chaos.”

    According to The New York Times, Adams had also prepared some remarks aimed at Cuomo in an early draft of the speech, saying “politicians who waffled on key issues and sought to push others aside in their quest for power ‘cannot be trusted.’” Those sentiments did not appear in the version of Adam’s speech released today.

    It remains unclear how deeply Adams’s departure will impact the race—or if it will at all. Polling from earlier this month suggests that Mamdani’s double-digit lead in the race will drop with Adams’s departure, with Cuomo benefitting. But with Sliwa insisting that he will remain in the race, that same polling predicts that Mamdani will retain the lead, a situation that has even Donald Trump seemingly rooting against the Republican candidate, and for Cuomo, a long-time ally.

    “I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one,” Trump said of the race earlier this month. “And I think that’s a race that could be won.”

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    Eve Batey

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  • Eric Adams drops out of New York City mayor’s race, ending his bid for reelection

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    New York City Mayor Eric Adams is dropping his bid for reelection, setting up a three-way race between Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa to lead America’s largest city.

    Adams, who took office in January 2022, announced he was dropping out of the mayor’s race in a video posted to his social media Sunday afternoon.

    “Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” the city’s 110th mayor said. 

    There has been intense questioning about the future of Adams’ campaign over the past few months. Most polls showed him with single digit support, well behind Mamdani, the Democratic nominee; Cuomo, an independent; and Sliwa, the Republican candidate.

    The mayor previously blasted speculation that he would drop his reelection bid. In a Sept. 5 news conference, he said he was “the only one that can beat [Zohran] Mamdani,” insisted he was remaining in the race, and referred to the Democratic frontrunner and former governor as “two spoiled brats.”   

    It has been a tumultuous year overall for Adams, who took office in January 2022. He has faced a federal corruption scandal and criticism over his relationship with the Trump administration.  

    “I was wrongfully charged because I fought for this city, and if I had to do it again, I would fight for New York again,” he said in his video message. 

    New York leaders react to Adams suspending campaign

    Adams’ name will still appear on the general election ballot in November, even though he suspended his campaign. He was running as an independent after sitting out the Democratic primary. 

    Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo in the primary, said in a statement on Adams’ departure from the race, “Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo’s actions but they will not dictate the results of this election. New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another. On November 4th, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of.”

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released a statement saying she was proud to work with Adams since he took office. 

    “During that time we have delivered much needed housing for New Yorkers, including the passage of the mayor’s visionary City of Yes plan. We have connected more New Yorkers to mental health services and supportive housing. We’ve driven down crime in our subways and gotten illegal guns off the streets. I have been grateful for his partnership. He leaves New York City better than he inherited it and that will always be central to his legacy as mayor.” 

    White House floated new job for NYC Mayor Adams

    Prior to the mayor dropping out, sources told CBS News New York that the White House was looking into possible government positions to persuade him to exit the race.

    Sources told CBS News New York’s political reporter Marcia Kramer that during a trip to Florida, Adams met with Steve Witkoff, a New York real estate investor and close adviser to the president.

    “While I will always listen if called to serve our country, no formal offers have been made. I am still running for reelection, and my full focus is on the safety and quality of life of every New Yorker,” Adams said in early September, as speculation about his potential departure swirled. 

    The mayor called the reports just rumors. 

    New York Mayor Eric Adams arrives at New York Presbyterian Weil Cornell Medical Center where a police officer was brought after being shot at a Manhattan office building, Monday, July 28, 2025, in New York.

    Angelina Katsanis / AP


    “To say, would you take a job in the administration or would I take it somewhere else, that’s hypothetical,” Adams said on Sept. 3. “I’m running for office and I’m going to finish doing that. I got work to do.”

    President Trump said he wanted to see a one-on-one race against Mamdani, adding two of the candidates should leave the race to make that happen, in hopes of uniting independent and Republican voters against the democratic socialist. 

    Both Adams and Sliwa previously dismissed the suggestion and vowed to stay in the running. Cuomo had said he would drop out if he wasn’t leading in the polls among the potential challengers to Mamdani heading into Election Day. Independent candidate Jim Walden already left the race, although a court decided his name will remain on the final ballot despite his dropping out. 

    Mamdani responded to what he called Mr. Trump’s “meddling” in the race, calling it “an affront to our democracy.” He later challenged the president to face him in a debate, saying, “let’s cut out the middleman.”

    Trump administration squashed Adams’ corruption case

    It was not the first time Mr. Trump put presidential pressure on New York City politics. Upon taking office earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice directed federal prosecutors in New York to dismiss their federal bribery case against Adams.

    The directive led acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon to resign, along with other members of her office. 

    Eric Adams Sworn In As Mayor Of New York City In Times Square After Ball Drop

    Eric Adams is sworn in as the 110th mayor of the city of New York on January 01, 2022 in New York, NY. Due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, the official inauguration has been postponed, and Adams chose to be sworn into office in Times Square following the annual New Years Eve ball drop.

    Arturo Holmes / Getty Images


    The charges were ultimately dropped with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again in the future. 

    Adams’ political opponents repeatedly called on him to resign, claiming he would be under the president’s influence. The mayor remained defiant, insisting there was no quid-pro-quo and launching his reelection campaign. 

    Adams administration dogged by corruption allegations

    Adams was accused of soliciting illegal campaign donations from wealthy and corporate donors and using them to tap into matching election funds in the 2021 race. 

    As part of the investigation, he was accused of accepting lavish bribes, like flight upgrades and luxury hotel rooms, in exchange for his political influence once he got into office. He pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

    The FBI raided several members of Adams’ inner circle last fall, leading to a flurry of resignations. More of his administration stepped down this February, and his longtime adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin was indicted on new bribery charges as recently as this August. 

    His former campaign fundraiser, Winnie Greco, was also recently accused of handing a journalist an envelope of cash inside a bag of potato chips. The mayor denied involvement with either incident. 

    This is breaking news. Please stay with CBS News New York for updates. 

    Mark Prussin

    contributed to this report.

    Marcia Kramer

    Marcia Kramer joined CBS News New York in 1990 as an investigative and political reporter. Prior to CBS2, she was the City Hall bureau chief at the New York Daily News.

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  • Eric Adams drops out of mayoral race

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    After months of speculations — and years of scandals — Eric Adams has officially dropped his bid to be reelected mayor of New York City.

    “I cannot continue my reelection campaign,” Adams said in a video posted to X. “The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign.”

    That leaves the Democratic nominee Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, the clear frontrunner in the race, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent.

    In the wake of Mamdani’s surprise primary win in June, real estate has been scrambling to coalesce on a candidate to back. Between June 25 and July 11, right after Cuomo’s loss to Mamdani, Adams raised more than $480,000 from real estate, making him the clear industry frontrunner. But after current and former members of his administration were indicted in August ​​on charges related to speeding up construction approvals and steering contracts to certain developers, the fundraising slowed down significantly.

    Between July 12 and August 18, Adams brought in a little more $60,500 from real estate donors. That was slightly above the $53,700 Cuomo brought in during that period. 

    Adams’ campaign sued the board last month to try and force the release of $4.7 million in public matching funds.

    The question remains whether Adams’ dropping out will be a boost to Cuomo’s campaign. A recent Suffolk University poll found Mamdani in the lead with 45 percent of the vote, followed by Cuomo at 25 percent and then Adams and Sliwa trailed behind at 7 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

    In the video posted today, Adams continued to tout his leadership when it came to housing. “We built more housing in one term than any administration before us and removed barriers to build even more,” he said.

    Read more

    Real estate donors favor Adams in latest round, but money flow slows  


    Who donated to Eric Adams?


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    TRD Staff

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  • New York City Mayor Eric Adams ends his reelection campaign

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    New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that he is ending his campaign for reelection.

    In a video released on social media, Adams spoke with pride about his achievements as mayor, including a drop in violent crime. But he said that “constant media speculation” about his future and a decision by the city’s campaign finance board to withhold public funding from his reelection effort, made it impossible to stay in the race.

    “Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign,” Adams said.

    The one-term Democrat’s decision to quit the race comes days after he repeatedly insisted he would stay in the contest, saying every day New Yorkers don’t “surrender.”

    But speculation that he wouldn’t make it to Election Day has been rampant for a year. Adams’ campaign was severely wounded by his now-dismissed federal bribery case and liberal anger over his warm relationship with President Donald Trump. He skipped the Democratic primary and got on the ballot as an independent.

    In the video, Adams did not directly mention or endorse any of the remaining candidates in the race. He also warned that “extremism is growing in our politics.”

    “Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer (is) to destroy the very system we built over generations,” he said. “That is not change, that is chaos. Instead, I urge leaders to choose leaders not by what they promise, but by what they have delivered.

    Adams’ capitulation could potentially provide a lift to the campaign of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow centrist who has portrayed himself as the only candidate potentially able to beat the Democratic Party’s nominee, state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.

    It was unclear, though, whether enough Adams’ supporters would shift their allegiances to Cuomo to make a difference.

    Mamdani, who, at age 33, would be the city’s youngest and most liberal mayor in generations if elected, beat Cuomo decisively in the Democratic primary by campaigning on a promise to lower the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

    Republican Curtis Sliwa also remains in the race, though his candidacy has been undercut from within his own party; Trump in a recent interview, called him “not exactly prime time.”

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has endorsed Mamdani , said in a statement after the mayor’s announcement that she has been proud to have worked with Adams for the last four years, and that he leaves the city “better than he inherited it.”

    This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

    Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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  • New Poll Shows Zohran Mamdani’s Chances of Winning NYC Ma…

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    A new poll from Suffolk University shows Democratic mayoral nominee and New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani up 20 points over former Governor Andrew Cuomo.

    Why It Matters

    With just weeks until New York City’s mayoral election on November 4, several reputable polls show Mamdani, a Democratic socialist and first-time citywide candidate, holding a sizable lead over his rivals.

    His commanding position could mark a significant shift in city politics, especially considering the primary defeat of Cuomo and the presence of high-profile opponents such as incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

    The race’s outcome will likely influence policy priorities on critical issues for New Yorkers, from affordability and crime to the city’s relationship with President Donald Trump and the national Democratic Party.

    What To Know

    In the poll, Mamdani has 45 percent of the vote compared to Cuomo’s 25 percent, Sliwa’s 9 percent and Adams’ 8 percent.

    The University’s CityView poll surveyed 500 likely election voters in The Big Apple and was taken from September 16 to September 18. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4. percent.

    The survey shows that the top issue for New Yorkers is affordability at 21 percent, followed by crime at 20 percent, economy and jobs at 14 percent and housing at 9 percent.

    Similar margins appear in other recent surveys, such as a Quinnipiac University Poll showing Mamdani at 45 percent, Cuomo at 23 percent, Sliwa at 15 percent and Adams at 12 percent among likely voters.

    Polls suggest Mamdani has built on his unexpected victory over Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary, and recent market-based odds put his chance of winning as high as 88 percent, according to Polymarket. However, when major rivals are removed from hypothetical matchups, Mamdani’s lead narrows, especially against Cuomo, indicating anti-Mamdani voters could consolidate if the race dynamics shift.

    What People Are Saying

    Columbia University professor Robert Y. Shapiro, to Newsweek via email Wednesday: “Mamdani has a solid lead and Cuomo has only two hopes. One is that Mamdani will perform badly in the debates in October — something close to a disaster. The other is that barring a poor performance by Cuomo in the debates, he will have a chance of winning if both Sliwa and Adams drop out. There is nothing Cuomo can do himself alone.”

    What Happens Next

    The New York City mayoral election is set for November 4. While Mamdani leads by double digits in most major polls, potential shifts could arise if key foes withdraw or endorsements change the election’s landscape.

    Mamdani has still yet to receive endorsements from key Democratic leaders like U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, but did land New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s backing.

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  • The Rats Won

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    New York Mayor Eric Adams has waged a years-long campaign against the city’s rats, dubbing them “public enemy number one” and even appointing a “rat czar” to tackle the problem in 2023. But with the rat czar’s quiet departure from her post late last week, it might be time to declare a victor. The rats apparently won this round.

    Kathleen Corradi was first appointed as rat czar, technically the Citywide Director of Rat Mitigation, by Mayor Adams in April 2023. Corradi promised to tackle the rat problem head-on, coordinating across various city government agencies, community organizations, and private businesses in the city.

    “You’ll be seeing a lot of me and a lot less rats,” Corradi said during a press conference when she was appointed to the role. Corradi noted how Adams had spearheaded the effort, saying at the time, “He hates rats, I hate rats, every New Yorker hates rats.”

    One of the big initiatives launched under Corradi to fight the rat problem was garbage bins, a novel concept in New York, where it’s long been common to just toss plastic bags full of trash on the sidewalks for pick-up. The city has also banned people from putting their trash out before 8 p.m.

    But rats are notoriously difficult to get rid of. City officials tried birth control. They tried gassing them. They tried smoking them out of the tree beds. They even tried a National Urban Rat Summit. Any gains have been incremental, unfortunately.

    Corrandi was on local public radio earlier this month, where she said “we’re seeing a decline in rat sightings” in complaint data, but acknowledged it was “too early to declare full success.” She said that Department of Health inspections had also helped by spreading out across the city to tackle the problem that way.

    “What they’re looking for is conditions that support rats, litter, uncontained garbage, harborage conditions, or active rat signs,” Corrandi said during the Sept. 10 appearance on the Brian Lehrer show.

    “Through those, we are really able to understand where in the city we have this higher rat burden, where we can focus efforts, and where we can work with property owners to address those issues. I would encourage everyone here to check out nyc.gov/rats and look at the Department of Health rat portal,” Corrandi said.

    But Corradi sent an email to staff on Friday inviting them to farewell drinks, according to The City. And she’ll be moving on to a new role at the New York City Housing Authority, serving as senior vice president for resident services, partnerships, and initiatives, according to the news outlet.

    The mayor’s office confirmed to Gizmodo that Corradi has departed, with Deputy Press Secretary Zachary Nosanchuk saying that they’re sad to see her go but that the work will continue. Nosanchuk sent a statement attributed to Mayor Adams that described the role of rat czar as a “daunting, complex task” but one that Corradi handled “with confidence and creativity.”

    “The results are clear: rat sightings are down eight straight months, and year-to-date, they’re down more than 15 percent,” Adams said. “Our communities are cleaner than ever, and cities from across the globe are interested in her one-of-a-kind role and our city’s success.”

    “Hats off to Kathy for this incredible work, and we wish her the best in this future endeavor— thankfully, she is not going too far and will still be working to serve the city in a different capacity. This effort will continue at full steam, with our fantastic city agencies working to continue our ‘War on Rats’ with passion and vision.”

    It’s unclear precisely why Corradi is switching roles, but The City notes that others have recently left the Adams administration, which became embroiled in scandal when the mayor was first charged with bribery and campaign finance violations in September 2024. Adams was allegedly taking perks from the government of Turkey. And when the FBI seized his devices, the mayor claimed that he forgot the passcode to his own phone.

    President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice dismissed the charges against Adams this past April amid accusations that the Mayor struck a backroom deal with the White House. Sightings may be down, but NYC’s rat problem undoubtedly persists.

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    Matt Novak

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  • Kamala Harris Directly Asked if She Supports Zohran Mamda…

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    Former Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during a Monday night interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, potentially further boosting the democratic socialist assemblyman’s campaign.

    The endorsement comes as Mamdani’s chances have surged to 85 percent on prediction markets as of last week, as recent polling shows commanding leads over his opponents ahead of the November 4 general election.

    Newsweek reached out to Mamdani’s office via email on Monday for comment.

    Why It Matters

    Harris’ endorsement represents a potential lift for Mamdani’s campaign amid ongoing divisions within the Democratic Party over his candidacy.

    The former vice president’s support contrasts with the reluctance of key Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, who have remained neutral.

    What To Know

    On Maddow’s eponymous The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, the host directly asked Harris if she endorsed Mamdani’s candidacy. Harris responded: “Look, as far as I’m concerned, he’s the Democratic nominee, and he should be supported.”

    The former vice president went on to pivot the discussion to lesser-known Democratic leaders running in other mayoral campaigns, including state Representative Barbara Drummond of Alabama and Helena Moreno of New Orleans.

    Mamdani’s campaign has gained significant momentum following Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to remain in the race, which paradoxically boosted the assemblyman’s chances from 79.7 percent to 85 percent on Polymarket prediction markets. Polling data reveals Mamdani’s dominance across multiple surveys conducted in early September, consistently showing double-digit leads over his closest rival, former Governor Andrew Cuomo.

    Five major polls demonstrate Mamdani’s commanding position. A CBS News/YouGov poll showed him leading 43 percent to Cuomo’s 28 percent, while a Marist survey recorded a 45 percent to 24 percent advantage. Quinnipiac University’s poll gave Mamdani a 22-point lead at 45 percent to 23 percent and an Emerson College poll showed 43 percent to 28 percent. The New York Times/Siena poll recorded Mamdani at 46 percent versus Cuomo’s 24 percent.

    However, when hypothetical head-to-head matchups remove Adams from the equation, Mamdani’s lead narrows significantly in some scenarios. While maintaining substantial advantages in most polls, the gap tightens to as little as 4 points in the Times/Siena survey, suggesting Cuomo could absorb anti-Mamdani votes in a more consolidated field.

    New York State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs announced he would not endorse Mamdani, citing fundamental disagreements over policy approaches and specifically opposing his views on Israel. Jacobs said he “strongly disagree[s] with his views on the State of Israel” and rejects “the platform of the so-called ‘Democratic Socialists of America.'”

    Despite calls from President Donald Trump for candidates to consolidate against Mamdani, both Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa have refused to exit the race. Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro emphatically denied rumors earlier this month of the mayor’s withdrawal, saying Adams “is in this race to win it,” with more than 20 events scheduled and multiple fundraisers planned.

    What People Are Saying

    Maddow, during the interview: “Arguably the fastest rising star right now in Democratic politics is Zohran Mamdani who is going to be elected mayor of New York City, and, um, probably in a landslide, if the polls are anything to go by. Lots of mainline Democrats have been very shy about his candidacy.”

    Jacobs: “Mr. Mamdani and I are in agreement that America’s greatest problem is the continued growth in income disparity in our nation. On how to address it–we fundamentally disagree.”

    Trump, on Truth Social: “Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has Endorsed the ‘Liddle’ Communist,’ Zohran Mamdani, running for Mayor of New York. This is a rather shocking development, and a very bad one for New York City.”

    Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont: “The oligarchs are panicking. They will spend as much as it takes to try to defeat Zohran Mamdani. They’ve got the money. We’ve got the people.”

    What Happens Next?

    With less than six weeks until the general election, the focus shifts to whether Harris’ endorsement will encourage Democratic leaders to follow suit and publicly support Mamdani.

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  • Andrew Cuomo’s Plan to Win

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    Photo: Angelina Katsanis/The New York Times/Redux

    Election day is rapidly approaching, and Andrew Cuomo is losing. But the Cuomo camp still has a long-shot plan to defeat Democrat Zohran Mamdani in November. It requires several things to come together: The field must shrink, then shrink further. Then deep-pocketed donors must make a last-minute pivot to Cuomo, who will use their money to peel off part of the Democratic voter base from the front-runner.

    “I am not going to blow smoke. It is a narrow path,” said Cornell Belcher, a pollster for Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns who recently joined Cuomo’s campaign. “But I haven’t worked for a candidate in the past decade who didn’t have a narrow path to victory.”

    The polls, to be sure, are bad, showing Cuomo trailing Mamdani by an average of 19 points. The labor unions and elected officials who endorsed the former governor in the Democratic primary have almost entirely abandoned him. Cuomo is losing the money race, and the national media has all but anointed the 33-year-old democratic socialist as the Next Big Thing.

    Longtime aides and allies concede it’s a daunting challenge, especially given that Cuoma will be running on a third-party line in a city where almost two-thirds of registered voters are Democrats.

    It doesn’t help that the Cuomo campaign’s multipronged approach rests on something happening that keeps not happening, despite constant rumors that it might. “There is very much a path here for us,” said one Cuomo official. “But the first step is that Eric Adams has to get the fuck out of this race.” But Adams, running a distant fourth, insists that he is not dropping out and that Cuomo is at fault for suggesting he will.

    As a result, members of the Cuomo camp have been treating Adams cautiously, fearful not just that he will attack them more but also that any efforts to nudge him out will backfire. When billionaire hedge-funder and onetime Adams supporter Bill Ackman tweeted, “It is time for Mayor Adams to step aside,” some close to Cuomo cringed, knowing the mayor would be less likely to leave if he felt pushed.

    Adams’s exit wouldn’t have a major impact on the polls. But, for Team Cuomo, consolidating the race from four candidates to three would unlock the second part of the plan: resetting the political chessboard in the race’s final weeks and getting anti-Mamdani donors to start shelling out money again. “If Eric gets out, there is going to be a gush of money coming Andrew’s way, $20 million to $30 million in a matter of weeks,” said one supporter of Cuomo’s.

    Once that happens, Cuomo’s advisers see part three playing out: the sidelining of Curtis Sliwa. The Republican, now running third, has been even more adamant than Adams about staying in the race. But a sample of what could be in store for Sliwa came recently, when Trump made an appearance on the Fox & Friends couch and proceeded to belittle the perpetually bereted Guardian Angels founder and radio host.

    “I’m a Republican, but Curtis is not exactly prime time,” Trump said. “He wants cats to be in Gracie Mansion. That’s the magnificent home of the mayor. It’s beautiful. We don’t need to have thousands of cats there.”

    Sure, Sliwa is a Republican, Trump transmitted to the MAGA faithful. But he’s also something of a weirdo — more a character than a mayor.

    Cuomo’s people were thrilled by Trump’s remarks, hoping they give other Republicans permission to dismiss Sliwa too. One adviser to Cuomo told me they believe as much as half of Sliwa’s vote — currently hovering around 15 percent — would be gettable for Cuomo. Add that to the share of the Adams vote Cuomo would be likely to receive and it could put him within five points of Mamdani.

    “I think this is going to come down to a two-person race at the end of the day, and I don’t think people are going to waste their vote,” Cuomo said when asked about the possibility of Adams (or even Sliwa) staying in the contest. “That would be the natural resolution, as it was in the primary. And in the primary, there were candidates who had 14 points, and they wound up with three. Why? People see who’s viable and who’s not, and there are only going to be two viable candidates in my opinion.”

    Getting over the top would involve reclaiming some working-class Democratic voters who supported Cuomo in the primary while trying to dampen enthusiasm for Mamdani among his most fervent fans: young voters on the left (who historically have not turned out en masse).

    For his part, Mamdani is engaged in a similar, if reversed, two-step: trying to keep his left-wing base energized while also expanding his tent to include Democratic moderates. In one day, Mamdani both doubled down on his pledge to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed regret for his 2020 tweet that called the NYPD “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety.” (Social-media posts from voices on the left angry over Mamdani’s backpedaling on some progressive rhetoric have been gleefully passed around on pro-Cuomo group chats.)

    Cuomo needs around 30 percent of Democrats to support him in the general. There is a belief in his camp that the Democratic primary, even in this heavily Democratic city, is not reflective of the general electorate. One person involved in a potential outside spending effort on Cuomo’s behalf said that according to their metrics, more than half of Democratic voters in November won’t have voted in the primary and that they tilt far more moderate than the primary electorate.

    “If you narrow this down to a two-person race and you look at the voters that are the most fluid on everything from crime to affordability to who can do the job, Cuomo has a significant lead with those voters,” said Belcher.

    Current polls show that in a four-person field, Cuomo is trailing in nearly every demographic subgroup. But the campaign believes he can win loyal Democratic constituencies like Black, Hispanic, and Jewish voters, who tend to vote straight down the ticket for the Democratic nominee but may be persuadable that Mamdani is too much of a risk.

    Many Cuomo advisers have discussed Rudy Giuliani’s 1993 victory, when half of the city’s electorate turned out to defeat David Dinkins. “You have to frighten people to give them a reason to go to the polls,” said one close Cuomo ally. “There is just a lot there,” said another. “There is public safety, there is the whole communist thing, there is the fact that if we elect this 33-year-old, then the city is going to go to shit. It will be de Blasio 2.0, and who wants that?”

    With Mamdani nationalizing the race, bringing in figures like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on his behalf, the Cuomo camp thinks it can do a version of the same. “What is a Mayor Mamdani going to mean for our efforts to take back the House? What is a Mayor Mamdani going to mean for Kathy Hochul’s reelection or for the 2028 race?” said one person close to Cuomo. The race, in this vision, would be a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party — one in which democratic socialists are preparingto mount a takeover and Cuomo, who has been dogged by his close association with Trump throughout this race, manages to flip the narrative and become the person who is going save the city from the Trumpian menace.

    “They are going to have to go scorched earth,” said Adam Carlson, a pollster not involved in the race. “It will have to be different from the primary — something like, ‘I am the only thing standing between New York City and a complete Trump authoritarian takeover.’ And Cuomo then becomes the ‘Don’t rock the boat’ guy.”

    Still, much of this hangs on Adams getting out of the race.

    “The next two weeks are crunch time,” said Democratic operative Chris Coffey, who advised Cuomo in the primary. “Because if you don’t see movement from Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa, it just gets harder for Cuomo to put something together.”


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    David Freedlander

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