How Adams could beat Cuomo: Remind voters who gave evil-doers free passes

It hardly bode well for Mayor Adams’ re-election chances when he got booed at the Planet Hollywood reopening on Tuesday night.By every measure, from terrible polls to Bronx cheers on the red carpet of a festive celebrity party, Adams is headed for a shattering defeat at the hands of former Gov.Andrew Cuomo in the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary.

There might be a way for him to pull it off, but it will take a laser-focused effort to educate voters about how much damage the former governor did to the Big Apple.Adams must remind the electorate that Cuomo is mostly behind the city’s stubbornly high felony rate and increasingly disorderly streets and sidewalks.As governor, he signed the criminal-coddling legislation that gave evil-doers a free pass like no other state in the Union.The primary winner will almost surely be elected mayor due to the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate.

Adams’ approval rating tanked at a record-low 20% in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, which also found that 56% of voters say he should resign from office.Meanwhile, despite the sexual-harassment scandal that drove him from office in 2021, Cuomo is favored by 31% of likely Democratic primary voters compared with 11% for Adams, according to Quinnipiac.The rest were split among nine other candidates in what City & State called a “wide, weird and unsettled field” of  unloved elected officials and complete unknowns.While Adams is bogged down by that corruption indictment, Cuomo brazenly rides a crest of popularity due to his name recognition and charismatic oratorical powers.

Supporters disregard his 2020 order to send hospitalized COVID-10 patients to nursing homes, which surely added thousands to the death toll; his lockdowns that were much harsher and longer-standing in the city than anywhere else in the state; or sexual harassment claims against him by multiple women.Cuomo last week doubled down on his support for bail reform, telling a Harlem church it ...