Dem
47
GOP
53
In this past Sunday's mailbag, reader R.M. in New York City wrote in with this:
My money is on Eric Adams switching back to being a Republican. There is no strong Republican challenger in the wings (or even one with any name recognition), so it would give Adams his best chance of advancing to the general election. Adams can continue his Trump charm offensive to peel off actual Republicans, and hope to cobble together some sort of coalition with whatever remains of his 2021 base. His best hope would be for a candidate to make it through the Democratic primary that can be painted as an open borders, defund the police, leftist. Coupled with whatever is happening on the national scene around crime and immigration, not to mention coming out hard against the recently enacted congestion pricing, he could still have a chance to squeak out a victory in a super close race.
Events in the last 48 hours have made it appear as if R.M. was prescient.
To start, Adams sat for an interview yesterday with Tucker Carlson. Anytime a Democrat has a confab with one of these Fox types, it makes a statement. But Tucker Carlson? Unfettered from whatever meager restraints that were placed on him by Fox, he's basically a white supremacist these days. And as he rattled off far-right talking point after far-right talking point, Adams largely just nodded. That makes a REAL statement.
This is not to say that the New York Mayor remained entirely silent, however. Most obviously, he spent some time railing against the current iteration of the Democratic Party, telling Carlson: "People often say, 'You don't sound like a Democrat. You seem to have left the party. No, the party left me, and it left working-class people." Pretty much that exact verbiage is commonly prelude to a party switch, because it frames the person (in this case Adams) as a person who is steadfast in their values, as opposed to a craven opportunist looking for the greener grass on the other side.
Adams also added something else, echoing things he's said several other times in the past month or so: He's very eager to work with the Trump administration. Adams also attended the inauguration, and has publicly pledged not to criticize Trump. One could very reasonably point out that all of these things are useful steps that the Mayor might take for the benefit of his city. However, they are also useful steps that he might take if he's planning a party switch. Oh, and they are also useful steps that he might take if he's in search of a presidential pardon, something that seems to be pretty freely available these days.
We are very skeptical that the badly damaged Adams can cobble together a winning coalition, even if he does switch parties (and certainly, The New York Times is not impressed). However, it sure does look like the Mayor is preparing to give it the old college try. (Z)