Dozens of donors to Eric Adams’ first mayoral run have defected from him this year and instead poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of two of his top challengers, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Daily News analysis of contribution filings found.
Out of the 423 donors who this month gave the legal max amount of $2,100 to Cuomo’s mayoral campaign in its first two weeks, about 10%, or 41 individuals, were financial supporters of Adams’ successful 2021 campaign.
In total, the ex-governor raked in at least $126,000 from 135 individuals who have previously made political contributions to Adams — including executives in New York’s powerful real estate, lobbying and finance sectors, records show. That’s nearly 9% of the $1.5 million Cuomo raised total in the two week stretch after his March 1 campaign launch.
Ken Frydman, a New York PR veteran who has represented investment firms, said Cuomo’s courting of Adams donors in real estate, lobbying and finance is especially key. Such donors are part of the “permanent government” class that holds extraordinary influence over city politics, Frydman argued.
“They think Andrew’s the better investment,” he said. “Money chases political power, and if you’re handicapping it they’re obviously betting on Cuomo because they see him as the better horse.”
In most polls of June’s Democratic mayoral primary to date, Cuomo is outrunning Adams by a 3:1 margin.
A similar trend of donor defections holds true for Speaker Adams: Past supporters of Eric Adams pumped at least $14,325 into her nascent mayoral coffers in the eight days she spent fundraising before last Friday’s filing deadline, making up more than 11% of her total $128,000 haul.
Among the ex-Eric Adams supporters who helped propel the speaker’s fundraising rally were at least 13 registered lobbyists and individuals doing business with the mayor’s administration.
Six of the 27 Adrienne Adams donors identified by The News as having previously financially backed the mayor also gave to his reelection bid, an apparent effort to hedge their bets. Those six individuals all donated to his 2025 campaign prior to his September 2024 federal corruption indictment. On Cuomo’s end, 14 of the 135 Eric Adams donors he got money from also chipped in to the mayor’s 2025 campaign — all of them also before his indictment.
Cuomo’s defector donors include Laurie Tisch, a billionaire philanthropist who maxed out her contribution to Cuomo after giving $2,100 to Adams last time around. Ramy Sharp, a designer, and Richard Ruben, a wealthy developer, each gave $2,000 to Adams’ 2021 campaign, but this month gave maxed out donations to Cuomo.
Anthony Scaramucci, a financier and onetime Trump administration official, was another prominent figure to give the max to Cuomo’s campaign this month, and his firm Skybridge Capital donated $100,000 to a super PAC supporting Cuomo’s run. Scaramucci previously donated $2,000 to Adams’ 2021 campaign and another $2,100 to his reelection bid in July.
Tyler Morse, a prominent New York hotelier, donated the legal max to both Cuomo and the speaker this month, records show. That comes after he gave $2,000 to Adams’ 2021 mayoral bid.
Basil Smikle, a veteran political strategist who served as executive director of the New York State Democratic Party and managed Ray McGuire’s 2021 mayoral campaign, said the trend of donors flocking to Cuomo and Speaker Adams after backing the mayor in 2021 indicates there’s growing dissatisfaction with the incumbent. A Quinnipiac University poll from early March pegged the mayor’s approval rating at 20%.
“He came into office with a lot of political capital and came in very strong with promises of making the city safe and bringing it back from COVID, but there has been a lot of disappointment in his mayoralty and I think a lot of donors want an alternative,” Smikle said.
The donor pivot from Adams comes as his 2025 campaign is facing strong headwinds.
Filings released this week reveal the mayor raised just $36,000 for his reelection bid in the past two months as he remains hobbled by the record-low approval ratings, his federal corruption indictment and surrounding scandals. The Campaign Finance Board has denied him public matching funds due to his criminal case, which revolves around alleged straw donations from Turkish government operatives.
The mayor has pleaded not guilty to the charges and the feds have moved to dismiss the case. But that has become an issue as well for Adams as the terms of the dismissal have been widely criticized as making Adams beholden to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Adams has denied a quid pro quo.
Amid the challenges, Adams hasn’t ruled out running as an independent in November’s general mayoral election should he lose June’s Democratic primary.
Cuomo, the speaker and the mayor have similarities as moderate Democrats running on their past achievements and attempting to appeal to a core base of Black, outer-borough voters.
But Smikle argued the donor defections come down to a more basic issue.
“I think voters want someone who can run city government,” he said. “There’s a movement toward a manager, a management candidacy, and I think donors see Cuomo and the speaker as people they know and are comfortable with.”
Adams campaign spokesman Todd Shapiro didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday. But the mayor has of late started taking more pointed aim at Cuomo.
“When you look at the problems we are facing around public safety, it was born out of Albany, it was the laws that he passed and he wanted to see move forward,” Adams said on “The Reset Talk Show” Wednesday when asked for his thoughts on Cuomo’s proposal to hire more NYPD officers.
“You can’t come back later and try to reinvent your life when you were in office already,” Adams added of Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual misconduct accusations he denies.
One of the most startling revelations in this week’s mayoral campaign finance disclosures is that some of Adams’ onetime confidantes are throwing support behind Speaker Adams.
That includes David Banks, the mayor’s first schools chancellor and longtime friend, who gave $250 to Adrienne Adams’ campaign this month. Banks’ younger brother, government consultant Terence Banks, gave another $175 to the speaker, records show.
The Banks brothers played prominent roles in the mayor’s 2021 campaign, both by raising funds and donating — but it appears the relationship soured after the siblings had their homes raided by the feds last year as part of a public corruption investigation. The schools chancellor was pushed out of his role by the mayor after the raids.
Others who have backed Adrienne Adams’ campaign include Roberto Perez, the mayor’s former intergovernmental affairs director, who this month gave the speaker $400, the max he can contribute as a lobbyist. That comes after Perez gave the mayor’s reelection campaign $400 last June, weeks before his indictment.
Records also show Staten Island Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks, who has endorsed Cuomo after backing Eric Adams in 2021, pitched in $100 to Cuomo’s campaign this month after giving $250 to Adams last cycle.
The pattern applies to more grassroots support, too. A plumber and construction superintendent have swapped their support to Cuomo from Adams, each donating $250 to the ex-governor this month, and Kimberly Recchia, a city public school teacher, chipped in $500 to the speaker’s campaign after donating the same amount to Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign, records show.
Besides donations, Cuomo has scooped up several endorsements from influential individuals and groups that Eric Adams relied on for support last time around.
That includes Brooklyn Democratic Party head Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, one of the mayor’s most loyal political allies, who endorsed Cuomo last Sunday.
“She is a very dear friend, and you don’t take any of this personal,” the mayor told reporters Monday when asked about the Brooklyn Democratic boss’ turn to Cuomo. “Politics is not personal.”
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