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Will the City Council speaker try to become the second Mayor Adams in a row?
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 20, 2025
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Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 20, 2025
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This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our new weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers' lives .
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Could Mayor Adams be replaced by… Mayor Adams?
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a moderate Democrat from southeast Queens, is known for her even temperament, which she uses to muscle through budget and policy fights with the mayor.
But her patience has worn out. She called for Mayor Eric Adams’ resignation on Monday, saying the city had endured enough, “scandal, selfishness and embarrassment.” On Tuesday, she was among the elected officials invited to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office as the governor contemplates whether to remove him from office.
“ We are living in a time right now where the world is upside down,” Speaker Adams said Sunday in Albany, where she attended the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus weekend.
“But Shirley Chisholm is telling me, ‘stand up, daughter!’” she said, accepting an award named for the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first woman to run for president.
Speaker Adams is the first Black person, mother and grandmother to hold her post, and leads the most diverse and first female-majority City Council in the city’s history.
Attendees at the weekend’s events said the speech fueled chatter that she could try to accomplish another first: New York City has never elected a woman as its mayor.
Speaker Adams, who is term-limited at the end of this year, has long dismissed questions about potential bids for higher office. Now, sources say she is reconsidering her next move, though she doesn’t have a lot of time to make up her mind.
She has no track record running citywide, no campaign infrastructure and no active campaign committee to start raising and spending campaign money. But she does have a loyal base of predominantly Black voters in a high-turnout district. She also has the bully pulpit of the speaker’s office. And oddly, although she and the mayor aren’t related, his name recognition might buoy her candidacy.
If she did decide to run, she would be only the second woman in the race. The other is state Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens, but her fundraising and poll numbers are weak.
And if Speaker Adams does jump in, her move could frustrate the plans of another rumored contender: former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is widely considered the front-runner despite not actually being in the race. The speaker could appeal to a large swath of moderate and Black voters – the same base that Cuomo often leans on, and the same one that put Mayor Adams in office.
“No matter what craziness comes from the other side of City Hall, for me in government, we move forward with truth and dignity and courage,” Speaker Adams said Sunday. The crowd responded with chants of, “Run, Adrienne, Run!”
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This week in New York politics
- Trump is making good on his campaign promise to kill congestion pricing in New York City. Read here.
- Mayor Adams is preparing an executive order that would allow U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents back on Rikers Island, but it’s unclear if he actually has the authority to do that. Read here.
- Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to stop the state ethics board’s investigation into his $5.1 million COVID-era book deal was shot down by New York’s highest court. Read here.
- We spent an evening at a singles mixer for NYC socialists. This is what it was like.
- The Trump administration forced the National Park Service to remove references to transgender and queer people from Stonewall National Monument’s official webpage. Here’s what happened next.
- The Adams administration reversed an earlier decision to close five child care centers in New York City after public pressure. Read here.
- Two city councilmembers introduced legislation last week to prevent building owners from buying their way out of complying with the city's landmark climate law. Read here.
- Listen: SNL is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and NPR TV critic Eric Deggans rounded up the program’s best political sketches on “the Brian Lehrer Show.” Listen here.
- Mayor Adams chose Kaz Daughtry, a deputy police commissioner and one of his close allies, to be deputy mayor for public safety, the New York Times reports.
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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