In the four weeks since we endorsed Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams, our confidence that we chose wisely has only grown — and not just because his support in the polls has risen steadily while the rest of the pack has moved up and down.
It’s mainly because the reason for his gains is the public’s growing concern over rising crime, with Monday’s NY1/IPSOS poll showing that nearly 46 percent of likely voters want crime and public safety to be the top priority of the next mayor. And from the start of the race, Adams has been the candidate most forthright and credible in vowing to bring it down — and insisting that #Defund nonsense is not the way to do it.
Shootings have surged across the city by more than 68 percent in the first half of 2021, according to the NYPD — with the hot summer months still to come.
That reality — and, yes, his own long record of also pushing for NYPD reform and other goals they share — is why Adams has also earned the support of veteran community organizer and Working Families Party co-founder Bertha Lewis, who pithily dismissed his rivals as less qualified: “Eric Adams is far and away the right person at the right time to run this city.”
Another sign of his strength is the nothing-burgers served up by rival campaigns desperate to slow his momentum, noise about how he once registered as a Republican and conspiracy theories about how he “really” lives in New Jersey.
The city needs a mayor who will tackle the escalating gun violence, focus on getting workers back in the city and forestall the fiscal crisis that’s coming when federal aid runs out.
Even if you disagree that Eric Adams is by far the best candidate to tackle those challenges, rank him as your No. 2 or even 3. Don’t let the new ranked-choice voting system empower the election of a far-leftist like Maya Wiley, whose mayoralty could actually make people yearn for the “good old days” of Bill de Blasio.