Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
It’s been a tumultuous few weeks for Eric Adams. In the one month since federal agents seized devices from some of the top members of his administration, the mayor has seen many of those colleagues exit and found himself under indictment on corruption and bribery charges by the Southern District of New York.
While Adams is vowing to fight the charges, it appears that many New Yorkers find that position untenable. A newly released Marist poll found that 69 percent of New Yorkers surveyed believe that Adams should resign from office, a staggering indication of how faith in the mayor appears to have waned. A breakdown by political party is even more stark for Adams with 71 percent of Democrats saying that the mayor should step down compared to 62 percent of Republicans. Only 30 percent of residents felt that Adams should stay in office. Marist surveyed 1,073 New York City adults on September 30 and October 1, 2024, a little under a week after the indictment against Adams was unsealed.
Adams’s legal peril has highlighted a lesser-known aspect of the city charter, which grants New York governor Kathy Hochul with the authority to unilaterally remove the mayor from office if she deems him unable to serve. Though the governor has yet to indicate if she plans to invoke that power, 63 percent of New Yorkers polled believe Hochul should start the process of removing Adams while 36 percent said she should not.
Throughout this controversy, the mayor has maintained his innocence and said the impending trial will land in his favor. But 65 percent of residents said they think that Adams has done something illegal with 24 percent indicating they think he did something unethical but not against the law. Only 8 percent responded that they thought Adams did nothing wrong at all.
At the moment, Adams has shown no signs of ending his bid for reelection next year despite amassing a group of primary challengers that include State Senator Jessica Ramos, comptroller Brad Lander, and State Senator Zellnor Myrie. Per the Marist poll, 81 percent of New Yorkers feel that the mayor shouldn’t seek a second term with only 18 percent saying they think Adams should run in 2025.
Respondents did weigh in on one possible future candidate: Andrew Cuomo who is reportedly mulling a mayoral bid if Adams steps aside. Fifty-five percent of New Yorkers said they weren’t interested in Cuomo running for mayor while 44 percent said they wanted him in the race.
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