In endorsing Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for mayor Wednesday, State Attorney General Tish James vowed to start stumping for her in the city’s Black churches, where Andrew Cuomo, the front-runner in the race for City Hall, has been a dominant force so far.
Black congregations in the city, especially in the outer-boroughs, are known to vote in high numbers in local elections, and Cuomo has delivered speeches at such churches for months — starting even before he officially launched his mayoral run in early March.
Though she didn’t call him out by name, James, a longtime political foe to Cuomo, suggested in a thinly-veiled reference to the ex-governor that he has given Black churchgoers a distorted view of his record while on the campaign trail.
“I’m going to campaign with [the speaker], particularly in Black churches, because certain candidates have visited a significant number of Black churches in the city of New York, and I think it’s important to remind them of the history of individuals,” James said, speaking at an afternoon press conference where DC 37, the city’s largest municipal union, and two other local labor groups also endorsed the speaker’s mayoral run.
“I don’t think politicians should disgrace a house of faith and for me and for Adrienne, both women of faith, it’s pretty serious. You see, we don’t go to churches just around election time, we go to church every Sunday … so I can’t support someone who just shows up simply because they want votes.”
Speaker Adams told the Daily News afterward she believes it’s especially important for her and James to highlight to African-American voters that Cuomo “could have gotten out PPE and vaccines” to Black communities “much sooner than he chose to” during the COVID pandemic.
In response to the comments from the speaker and James, Cuomo’s campaign provided a statement from Brooklyn Bishop Orlando Findlayter in which he said the ex-governor “stood with the Black community during our most difficult days, in ways few elected officials ever have.”
“It is deeply troubling when any leader choose to mislead our community for political gain,” said Findlayter, who has endorsed Cuomo’s mayoral run. “I hope Speaker Adams, as someone who understands the weight of leadership, will reflect on the importance of honesty and unity as we all work toward a better future for our communities.”
Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual misconduct accusations he denies, has consistently polled as the favorite to win the Democratic June 24 mayoral primary.
Speaker Adams, who announced her mayoral run in early March, has struggled to gain momentum for her campaign, with relatively slow fundraising and little traction in the polls.
But she’s hoping she can shake up the dynamic of the race with the new endorsements from James, DC 37 and the two other unions, the local chapters of UNITE HERE and the Communications Workers of America.
In backing the speaker, the three unions bucked a recent trend of the city’s politically influential labor groups lining up behind Cuomo.
DC 37 executive director Henry Garrido, whose union represents some 150,000 city workers and tens of thousands of more municipal retirees, said a big reason why his group went against Cuomo was because he as governor raised the state’s retirement age and cut some retirement benefits for public sector workers.
Endorsing against Cuomo could be risky for DC 37, whose leaders would have to negotiate a new labor contract with his administration if he’s elected mayor.
Asked by The News whether he’s concerned about Cuomo retaliating against his union in such labor negotiations, Garrido shot back: “What you just said is the prime example of why he’s not here,” prompting cheers and applause from the audience of DC 37 members.
“I’m not afraid … If the governor gets elected, then we’ll deal with it, but until then, we are going to elect Adrienne Adams,” Garrido said.
In pitching her mayoral candidacy to the DC 37 members, Adams described herself as a “scandal free” alternative to both Cuomo and Mayor Adams, who dropped out of June’s Democratic primary in favor of seeking reelection as an independent candidate in November amid continued political fallout from the controversial dismissal of his federal corruption indictment.
“For years, I stood up to a mayor who made everything about himself,” she said. “I fought back in the budget and won for libraries, for children, for workers, and as mayor, I will keep on fighting for all of you.”
