In a marked shift, Mayor Adams is planning “soon” to commission an internal poll that he would use to help him decide whether to continue his longshot bid for reelection, one of his top advisers, Frank Carone, told the Daily News on Thursday.
Carone, Adams’ reelection campaign chairman, didn’t offer a more precise timeline or divulge who will conduct it. Todd Shapiro, Adams’ campaign spokesman, wouldn’t share more details, either, only saying the mayor “will be spending his resources to get his message out and will then look at his own independent poll to make a decision” about the mayoral race.
The latest comments from Adams’ camp mark a shift in tone and one of the strongest indications yet the mayor is seriously considering abandoning his independent reelection campaign as sources say he’s weighing doing so in exchange for a job in President Trump’s administration or in the private sector. Publicly, Adams has continued to affirm he plans to stay in the race.
In public polls, however, Adams has placed at the back of the pack for months as he remains dogged by his controversial ties to the Trump Administration and his now-dismissed federal corruption indictment. Three polls released this week all placed Adams at the back of the pack.
According to sources, Trump’s team and others have pushed for Adams to drop out in order to maximize the chances of Andrew Cuomo, who is, like the mayor, running as an independent in November against Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee. Mamdani is polling as the favorite to win, but polls show Cuomo would have a better shot at beating him if Adams steps out of the Nov. 4 contest.
As first reported by NBC4 and confirmed by The News with sources familiar with the matter, Adams initially broached the internal polling idea during a private meeting with business leaders hosted by the Association for a Better New York on Wednesday afternoon.
Adams — who has promised repeatedly in public that he’s staying in the race — didn’t provide a timeline for the commissioning of the internal survey in the meeting, either, but reportedly told business honchos he would continue to keep a close eye on public polls, while noting the dynamics of elections typically don’t come into full shape until the last few weeks.
NBC4 also reported that Adams sugested that if his poll numbers don’t improve, he would prioritize the interests of the city, saying:
“I love the city more than I dislike Andrew,” a reference to Cuomo.
That comment marked a sharp departure from a fiery Gracie Mansion press conference last week when Adams called Cuomo a “liar” and a “snake.”
