Mayor Eric Adams on Monday defiantly brushed off a new poll showing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has yet to jump into the race, with a whopping 26% lead in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Hizzoner, during his weekly news conference, compared Cuomo’s apparent early lead to the one held by his 2021 rival Andrew Yang — who ultimately came in fourth place nearly four years ago. Cuomo’s lead came from a Monday poll conducted in December by the firm Progressives for Democracy in America, which had him at 32% support and Adams at just 6%.
Adams, in response to a question about the poll, brandished a printed-out screenshot of a 2021 report from the news site The Independent with the headline “Andrew Yang opens up huge lead in race to be next New York City mayor.” The February report discussed a poll that had Yang leading the pack of Democratic primary candidates that year with 28% and Adams directly behind him with 17%.
“I’ve been here before, this is deja vu,” Adams said. “In February, Yang had a double-digit lead on me.”
The mayor compared the current leg of the campaign to a sports season, noting that the yet-to-come playoff phase is when it really becomes clear who is leading in the race. He insisted his on-the-ground connections with various communities accross the five boroughs will ultimately buoy his reelection effort.
“My story resonates with New Yorkers,” Adams said. “No one handed me an empire. I’m building empires for New Yorkers…So, I can’t sit back and worry about what the pollsters say, I have to listen to what the people say.”
Cuomo camp still mum, but stirring
Cuomo’s longtime spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, declined to comment on the poll or Adams’ remarks.
But the former governor has reportedly been mulling a run for over a year as he looks to make a political comeback, following nearly a dozen accusations of sexual misconduct leading to his 2021 resignation as the state’s top executive. Cuomo fiercely denies the allegations.
According to a report last week, Cuomo will likely launch a run in February.
The poll — first reported by the news site Politico — had former city Comptroller Scott Stringer in second place at 10%, his successor Brad Lander at 8%, Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos at 7%, and Asssembly Zohran Mamdani tied with Adams at 6%.
The survey also included a sample of how the candidates would do in a ranked-choice primary, which is what the June contest will be. It has Cuomo passing the 50% threshold needed to win the race in the fifth round of ranked-choice voting, with Adams eliminated in round four after staying at 8%.
Lander isn’t worried, either
One of Adams’ rivals, Lander, reacted to the poll during his Monday morning news conference, offering a brush-off similar to Mayor Adams’.
The comptroller further took aim at Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations and Congressional Republicans’ charge that the former governor lied to them under oath when testifying about his alleged role in covering up nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
“If you look back and look at about today nearly four years ago, you would see that Andrew Yang was on top of the polling,” Lander told reporters. “Andrew Yang did not prevail ultimately. This is the very beginning of the mayoral race and I do not believe that New Yorkers want another corrupt chaos agent at City Hall.”
The latest mayoral race polling comes as Adams faces a five-count federal corruption indictment, for which he will go on trial in April. In the wake of the charges, to which Adams’ pleaded not guilty, his campaign fundraising saw a sharp drop-off and the Campaign Finance Board denied him the first round of public matching funds.
Yet on Tuesday, Adams expressed confidence that his fundraising numbers will bounce back in the latest reporting period, which will be made public later this week.
“I think the numbers that are coming out in a short period of time is going to show that my base of support is still there,” the mayor said. “My core is still there.”
