Federal investigations reportedly involving Turkish construction companies and seven trips to China. An ongoing budget battle that has left libraries closed on Sundays and the City's 3-K program perilously underfunded. A widespread perception that the City's chief executive would rather party in the Hamptons than "get stuff done" for New Yorkers.
Each of these alone would be a headwind for any mayor facing a contested primary, but together, they have apparently taken a significant toll on Eric Adams's reelection prospects.
Just 24 percent of New York City Democrats say that Adams deserves a second term, while 57 percent believe that someone else should take over, according to a poll of 1,424 voters by Slingshot Strategies that was released to Politico this morning.
Who could that someone be? The pollsters asked voters to rank the candidates that have declared so far—Adams, former Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Brooklyn State Senator Zellnor Myrie—in a hypothetical election happening today. And the winner is…
"Not sure" in a landslide!
Of course, there's a bunch of caveats to a poll like this, which is coming courtesy of the consultants that worked on Andrew Yang's ill-fated mayoral bid. It's a year out from the election with a presidential election looming, candidates like Myrie haven't really hit the campaign trail yet, and 11 percent of respondents said they either had no opinion of the mayor or hadn't heard of him (who are these people, we would like to meet them).
So like all polls, take it with a grain of salt. That being said—there's nothing good in here for the mayor. Only 38 percent of New York City Democrats have a favorable view of him, while 52 percent don't. On issues such as homelessness, the arrival of migrants, and most importantly for a cop mayor, crime, New Yorkers don't agree with how he's doing his job. Possibly more damning for Adams (especially now that his hastily convened Charter Review Commission is not going to get rid of ranked-choice voting), is that he's not really anyone's second choice—just 1 percent of those polled would even rank Adams anywhere on their ballot.
Hell Gate reached out to an adviser of the mayor's campaign for comment about the poll, but we have not yet received a reply.
Need more evidence to suggest the "Swagger Mayor" has lost his swagger? On Thursday morning, Adams finally opened up the City's pools for the summer, unveiling a newly redone Astoria Pool—but he refused to jump in himself. Contrast this stuffiness with the image of Adams on the campaign trail in 2021, enjoying a swim at Orchard Beach.
The mayor joked to reporters that he wasn't getting in because he only goes swimming in Speedos (again, not true!) and that he'd rather do his swimming in private settings.
Given these latest poll numbers, this is probably for the best—if he went to a public pool, he might run into any one of the majority of Democratic voters who want to see him gone by 2026.
