Adams’ NYC Residency Questioned; New Yang Poll: Election Update

(Bloomberg) -- Eric Adams, a leading candidate for New York mayor, drew scrutiny over his residency after a Politico report suggested that he isn’t living in the Brooklyn apartment he listed when registering for his candidacy. The campaign denied such claims.

Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, led the race in a new internal poll released by mayoral rival Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate. New York City’s police union said it wouldn’t endorse a candidate until someone proclaimed their support for the cops “clearly and emphatically.”

Key Developments:

Where Does Adams Live?

Adams drew ire from rivals after Politico, citing records and surveillance, suggested he isn’t living at the Brooklyn apartment he listed when he registered to run for mayor.

Politico said Adams has been staying overnight at his city-funded office, which he said he did during the depths of Covid, but might not have ever left. Politico also cited a Fort Lee, New Jersey, co-op that he bought with his partner.

Campaign spokesman Evan Thies said Adams lives on Lafayette Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where his son also lives. When Adams isn’t at the garden apartment of the brownstone, which he owns, Thies said he would be working at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall.

Adams didn’t address the residency question directly but said on Twitter, “You know it’s silly season when your opponents are staking out your office late at night so they can attack you for working hard!”

Rivals pounced on the story. Civil-rights lawyer Maya Wiley’s campaign spokesperson released a scathing attack on Adams, asking “does Eric Adams live in New Jersey?” and Yang’s campaign accused Adams of skipping a mayoral forum to avoid answering questions about where he lived.

“Serious questions have been raised about the full-time residence of Eric Adams, questions that must be answered in full before voters head to the polls,’ former Citigroup Inc. banker Ray McGuire said in a statement.

Yang Slipping

Internal polling conducted for individual campaigns can sometimes be slanted in that candidate’s favor. But a June 1-6 survey of 1,191 likely voters, conducted by Brooklyn-based political consultant Slingshot Strategies for the Yang campaign, showed Adams with 17% of first-place votes, Yang in second with 16% and former city Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia third at 14%. At least 20% remain uncertain about their vote, according to the survey.

The poll showed Yang winning in head to head match-ups against every top competitor except Adams, beating city Comptroller Scott Stringer by eight percentage points; Wiley by 19 points and Garcia by four points. Voters preferred Adams to Yang in a one-on-one match-up, 44% to 42%, according to the poll.

The Police Vote

The Police Benevolent Association called on mayoral candidates to more emphatically support New York City officers if they wanted to win its endorsement.

“If these candidates want to make the city safer, they need to say — clearly and emphatically — that they will support New York City police officers in our public safety mission. No caveats, no futile attempts to appease anti-cop ideologues,” PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said in an email.

Lynch said the association has been in touch with a number of mayoral campaigns but has not decided whether it will endorse any candidate yet.

Policing and rising crime have become a top issue in the mayor’s race after a number of candidates pledged to redirect money from the force to other city programs.

Comptroller Race Heats Up

City Councilman Brad Lander picked up a coveted endorsement for New York City’s comptroller on Tuesday from the New York Times editorial board, which said Lander’s work has “changed New York for the better.” He also got backing from progressive politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren.

The comptroller acts as the city’s money manager and oversees five public pensions that collectively hold more than $250 billion in assets. That financial might allows the comptroller to exert influence over the environmental, social and governance investing practices of money managers and the companies the city invests in.

A May 17-31 Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found Corey Johnson leading the pack with 18% of respondents ranking the council speaker as their first choice. Former financial journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Lander were tied for second place with 9% of respondents ranking them first.

The leading comptroller candidates will participate in two live debates this week: One on Wednesday at 4 p.m. hosted by 77 WABC Radio and another on Thursday broadcast live on Spectrum News NY1 and WNYC.

Transit PAC Endorses Garcia

Former city Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia has been endorsed for mayor by StreetsPAC, an influential political action committee advocating for investments in bike lanes and pedestrian spaces in New York.

The group, which does voter registration and get-out-the-vote programs, had 16 victorious candidates among 21 it endorsed during municipal primary elections in 2013. In the 2018 general election, all 10 candidates it endorsed for the state legislature won, and in 2020, all 21 candidates it supported were elected, including five new members of the legislature backed in primary races.

“While all of the leading candidates, Ms. Garcia included, have proposed ambitious transportation agendas, we firmly believe that she is best equipped to deliver on her promises,” the group wrote in its endorsement Tuesday. “She understands clearly that physically preventing crashes through street design is the key to reducing deaths and injuries, and she has pledged to implement roadway redesigns across the city that put pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders first.”

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