On Wednesday, Eric Adams became the first mayor of New York City to be indicted while in office. Adams, defiant, vows to fight the charges while staying in office. With more federal investigations swirling around pivotal members of his administration, however, this week’s indictment could represent the tip of an iceberg. New York City faces many months of tumult and uncertainty.
The five charges brought by Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, including conspiracy, wire fraud, solicitation of foreign campaign contributions, and bribery, begin with his time as Brooklyn borough president nearly a decade ago. He’s accused of taking campaign donations from foreign sources using “straw” donors—U.S.-based individuals who accept funds from foreign nationals and make campaign contributions, falsely certifying the contributions as their own. Because of New York City’s generous matching-funds program, public dollars multiplied these contributions, allegedly to the tune of more than $10 million. Prosecutors also allege that Adams accepted luxury hotel rooms and flight upgrades from Turkish businesspeople and a Turkish airline without reporting these benefits. In exchange, Adams purportedly pressured high-ranking Fire Department officials to green light Turkey’s newly built consulate, despite safety concerns.
Though the situation is indeed legally serious, many New Yorkers would hardly consider Adams’s alleged actions unforgivable. The charges aren’t violent or sexual in nature. Flight and room upgrades seem like fairly petty benefits—the sort of perks that many think would come with being the most important person in New York City. Despite his many shortcomings, Adams is an adroit retail politician; he knows these allegations aren’t politically lethal. He’s betting that, once the initial shock of the indictment wears off, he can outlast the charges.
But even if Adams can survive, that doesn’t mean he can govern effectively. Top members of his administration—some facing federal investigations of their own—have departed in the past month, including Schools Chancellor David Banks, Police Commissioner Edward Caban, Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, and Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg. The critically important law department has been leaderless for months.
Politically, the mayor has lost the confidence of many influential voices. Some support his immediate resignation, such those on the city’s vocal left flank. A few hours prior to news of the indictment breaking on Wednesday night, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the first member of Congress to call for Adams’s resignation. But even sensible moderates like Councilmember Bob Holden signaled grave doubts about Adams’s ability to lead in these circumstances. The New York Times editorial board has called for his departure, while the Wall Street Journal editorial board urged caution and due process.
One of the mayor’s biggest problems is that he hasn’t amassed a compelling record of achievements during his three years in office to counterbalance the indictment. New York’s voters and elected leaders would be less likely to defect if he had demonstrated his indispensability to the city’s well-being. But it’s harder to hold your nose and stick with him when any number of alternative individuals could do at least as well, and with far less baggage. Even before the indictment, poll numbers revealed widespread dissatisfaction with Adams’s performance.
Indeed, Adams’s track record is decidedly mixed. On crime, the mayor can claim noteworthy declines in homicides since he assumed office, but that record is clouded by sharp rises in other crimes like felony assaults, carjackings, and disorder. Much of the city’s commercial real-estate sector is highly distressed. Adams can’t point to a decisive, term-defining policy victory like Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral control over public schools or Bill de Blasio’s pre-K for all. The charter revision commission Adams convened this summer produced proposals of only modest consequence, contributing to the broadly held perception that he convened it to thwart opposition in the city council.
Even worse, on the issue that has defined the city’s past two years, the migrant crisis, Adams has doled out billions of taxpayer dollars in no-bid, emergency contracts for migrant shelter and services. As Nicole Gelinas has tracked for months, the city’s contract for migrants’ city-funded debit cards was awarded to an Adams supporter, with little in the way of accountability for performance. This spending will now rightly come under increased scrutiny.
Much of the city’s outlays on the migrant crisis have helped Adams’s political supporters, such as the city’s hotel trade association and the labor union for hotel workers. And though most of New York's special interest groups have yet to decide whether they will continue to support the embattled mayor, their backing is more important than ever. Their defection would extinguish whatever hope remains for Adams.
The mayor’s final appeal to New Yorkers—that the indictment is politically motivated payback for his vocal criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis—is unpersuasive. The charges date back to his tenure as Brooklyn borough president, years before the migrant crisis began. Besides, his bellyaching about Washington won nothing for New York in the end. At bottom, it revealed his ineptitude.
Few New Yorkers can say they’re much better off today than they were three years ago. How many should Adams expect to rally to his defense?
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