If Eric Adams resigned, Andrew Cuomo would lead pack of potential successors, poll says

NEW YORK — A majority of New York City voters believe Mayor Eric Adams should resign if he is indicted in an FBI probe targeting his 2021 campaign, according to a new poll released Saturday.

And if Adams were to leave office prematurely, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who stepped down in 2021 amid a series of sexual harassment allegations — would lead the pack of potential successors, according to a survey conducted by the political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies and shared with POLITICO.

As POLITICO first reported, Cuomo is mulling a run for mayor as he eyes a political comeback.

In a hypothetical, nonpartisan special election, Cuomo would receive 22 percent of the vote, with city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a progressive, capturing 15 percent of the 600 registered city voters surveyed this month. Kathryn Garcia, who nearly won the mayoralty in 2021 and now works for Gov. Kathy Hochul, ranked third with 12 percent in Slingshot’s poll. (Cuomo, who hails from a political family, has by far the highest name recognition of the group.)

A plurality of voters — 35 percent — were undecided when presented with 12 candidates. Former GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, who plans to run again, garnered 9 percent as the only Republican in the Slingshot matchup.

For now, these scenarios are all a bit of fan fiction: Adams has vigorously defended himself and his campaign and is raising money for a 2025 reelection bid.

“Another day, another misleading poll, but this one by the same pollster who got the 2021 mayoral race completely wrong," Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy said, referring to Slingshot's work polling on behalf of Andrew Yang's losing mayoral campaign. "Let’s stop spreading false narratives by want-to-be candidates who are not going to be on the ballot. Crime is down and jobs are up, and that’s because Mayor Adams continues to deliver for the working people of this city every day, but attempting to tear down the city’s second Black mayor for blatant political purposes is shameful.”

Cuomo, who has a 46-42 approval rating, would lead Williams by six points in the first round of one imagined ranked-choice ballot — a system put in place two years ago that allows New Yorkers to select up to five candidates. In another, with fewer contenders, he would beat Williams in the first round by 11 points.

The former governor resigned from office after the harassment allegations, which he denies, were memorialized in a report from state Attorney General Letitia James. The erstwhile executive is still very much focused on vindicating himself — waging a taxpayer-funded legal campaign to cast doubt on his accusers and portray himself as a victim.

The poll was the second this week to deliver devastating news for Adams.

After a Quinnipiac University poll found him receiving a record-low approval rating of 28 percent, Slingshot found the mayor had a 37-56 job approval rating.

Despite the bruising numbers, Adams’ base of Black voters was far more sympathetic to him amid the FBI investigation. Half said the city’s second Black mayor should not resign if he is indicted and should instead wait for the legal process to play out. A majority of every other racial group felt otherwise. (Adams has said his campaign followed the law and that he is cooperating with the probe.)

While Adams’ approval numbers are better than the Quinnipiac poll earlier this week, the results from Slingshot reflect similar findings — undercutting attempts from City Hall to paint the Quinnipiac results as misleading.

Slingshot, for example, found a low job approval rating among Hispanic voters, who were crucial to the mayor’s 2021 coalition. Only 35 percent of those surveyed approved of the job the mayor was doing, compared to 55 percent who disapproved.

Those numbers were on par with white voters and those who identified as “other.”

Half of Hispanic voters also said Adams should be removed from office by the governor if he is indicted — the only racial subgroup to tilt toward expulsion.

Meanwhile, just 29 percent of Asian voters — another group heavily wooed by the Adams camp ahead of his successful 2021 win — approved of his job performance, compared to 62 percent who disapproved.

Adams also had low support with voters age 55 and older — a crucial demographic within the Democratic Party.

A Slingshot representative said no one commissioned the private survey. Last month, Slingshot’s Evan Roth Smith made waves when he flagged on X a different poll assessing Cuomo’s chances in a mayoral run. He wrote he was "highly confident" that Cuomo had ordered the survey.

The news comes as Adams grapples with the federal probe.

FBI agents conducted a series of raids and interviews Nov. 2 searching for evidence the mayor’s 2021 campaign colluded with the Turkish government and accepted illicit foreign donations.

No one has been charged in the probe. But that has not stopped his political opponents from marshaling forces in response to what they perceive as a weakened executive being dogged by stories about his ties to Turkey, coupled with New Yorkers’ growing dissatisfaction over proposed budget cuts and housing costs.