Mayor Adams' chances for reelection are little to foreshadowing when he was booed at the reopening of planet Hollywood on Tuesday night.
From the awful polls to the Bronx Cheers on the red carpet of celebratory celebrity parties, Adams is heading for a crushing defeat at the hands of former governor Andrew Cuomo in the June 24th Democratic mayoral primary. There may be a way he can pull that apart, but there will be a laser-focused effort to educate voters about how much damage the former governor has done to the Big Apple.
Adam must remember to voters that Cuomo is behind the city's stubbornly high felony rates and increasingly disordered streets and sidewalks. As governor, he signed the Criminal Residence Act, which gave evil doers a free pass like no other state in their union.
The main winner will almost certainly be elected mayor for the city's overwhelmingly democratic voters. Adams' approval rating has placed a record rating of 20% in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.
Meanwhile, despite the sexual harassment scandal that took him in office in 2021, Cuomo is supported by 31% of the leading Democratic voters compared to 11% of Adams, according to Kinnipiac. The rest were divided into nine other candidates, what city and state called unloved elected officials and completely unknown “a broad, strange and unstable field.”
While Adams is upset by his corruption accusations, Cuomo bravely rides to the pinnacle of popularity due to his recognition of his name and his charismatic eloquent power. Supporters ignored the 2020 order to send hospitalized Covid-10 patients to nursing homes, which certainly added thousands to the deaths. His lockdown was far more severe than anywhere else in the state and was in the city longer. Or claims of sexual harassment against him by multiple women.
Cuomo doubled his support for bail reform last week, telling Harlem Church that he “was right about something terrible wrong.”
However, he also pledged to add 5,000 officers to the NYPD's depleted rank. There is no sound that sounds like it sounds to ring to come across as the Hercules of the law and order that the city needs.
Cuomo can honestly claim credits of some good works to prevent a year-long shutdown of L trains between Manhattan and Brooklyn by completing the amazing new Terminal B at the Second Avenue Metro and LaGuardia Airport and finding a swift way to repair tunnel damage than the MTA wanted.
These achievements make Adams laugh at how he couldn't remove the widely hated sidewalk sheds, even in city-owned buildings.
Adams was overwhelmed by the influx of illegal immigrants during the Biden era and slammed the chaos they brought us.
His nasty administration resembled the constant ingress and out clown cars of the police chief, agency chief and deputy mayor. Perhaps the most damaging thing in our Trump-hating city, but he is accused of being sucked into by a new president to steal the federal pardon on his corruption charges.
But due to his personal unpopularity and legal vulnerability, Adams has a slight path to victory that has been opened to him – if he has a stomach for it.
Adams has shown the courage he faces down the Biden administration over immigration, but Cuomo has stunned when he pushed Congress into criminals, signing the 2019 heinous bail “reform” and “discovery” rules, tying prosecutors into the knot and making violent Perps a loose wholesale. The latter rule is highly favorable for criminals, and even “woke” Manhattan da Alvin Bragg, who opposed them.
Cuomo's records may have ambiguity in other scars, but there is nothing about the bail law. He could have refused, but he was afraid to alienate the left of Congress that he had sweetened.
Instead, Cuomo strengthened the civic order that spanned over 30 years (even under resourceful former mayor Bill de Blasio) with his pen stroke, giving him the gun's homeland pass.
Crime got much worse in the 1980s and early 1990s, but the city feels it's less safe than it was in 2019. The resurrected mayhem is more than a warning. This is a scary reality for New Yorkers who weren't here over 30 years ago.
To survive the primary, Adams must focus on that single issue, even when the New York Times and its Media Echo Chamber embrace Howl about it.
He does not need to protect himself via Turkish Airlines seat upgrades or “wire fraud” fees. His strongest strategy is to convince voters that Cuomo is primarily to stubbornly condemn the high felony rates and increased street disorder.
That's the most important thing for most New Yorkers. Actual crime and obstacles were unleashed by Cuomo's acquiescence of the Congress's distant agenda.
Many voters may still support Cuomo, but at least they can provide information to make them influential.
If “being negative” means telling the truth, Adams can scream it from the rooftops of tenements or skyscrapers. He should tell it to the New Yorker masses who see the quality of life getting worse before their eyes. Say it again until your face turns blue. And once more, and many times. scuozzo@nypost.com
