Adams’ new role stumping for Biden 2024

Presented by NY Renews, a project of Tides Advocacy

Voters around the country could soon start seeing more of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Tucked at the bottom of a Washington Post story from last week was the revelation that Adams is among more than 20 Democrats who will sit on a national advisory board convened by President Joe Biden’s team.

These board members will be asked to stump both on television and at events around the country — first for the Democratic Party and then for Biden once he officially announces his reelection bid — which stands to greatly burnish Adams’ star.

As the Post noted, the board is partially a way for Biden to head off criticism by bringing a variety of party officials into the fold. And while casting a wide net for supporters is a common tactic (you may recall the mayor’s 800-person transition team), in this case the two moderates have shared a cozy rapport ever since Adams took office. His inclusion as a top surrogate along with a handful of senators, members of Congress and governors shows the bond is still good.

That was not necessarily a foregone conclusion.

In January, the mayor visited the southern border and vowed to rally colleagues around the country to collectively pressure the federal government for more asylum-seeker aid. Adams, however, was always careful to include the Senate and House in his critiques, which appears to have kept him in the good graces of a president now in need of messengers to talk about the White House’s first-term wins along with crime and public safety.

“This blue-collar mayor will be happy to aid this blue-collar president in any way possible during the reelection campaign,” Adams spokesperson Maxwell Young said in a statement. “They both believe that safety and justice go hand in hand and that government needs to focus on helping working class Americans succeed.”

Young noted the White House and Adams’ senior adviser for external affairs Tiffany Raspberry have been talking as recently as this weekend about ways the mayor could be helpful ahead of 2024.

IT’S MONDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: [email protected] and [email protected] or on Twitter: @annagronewold and @joeanuta

WHERE’S KATHY? In Albany with no announced public schedule.

WHERE’S ERIC? Appearing on several local TV stations, signing two local laws into effect, then holding more local TV interviews before meeting with the British ambassador to the U.S. After that, he’ll meet with Taronn Sloan, a member of the violence interrupter group “Brownsville In, Violence Out,” before speaking at a flag-raising ceremony for Ghana.

What City Hall's reading

NYC Mayor Eric Adams unfazed by Lightfoot’s big loss in Chicago, POLITICO’s Kelly Garrity: New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday he doesn’t see Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s loss in Chicago’s mayoral election as a cautionary tale for his own future as the leader of America’s largest city. “To the contrary,” Adams told host CNN Dana Bash when asked if Lightfoot’s historic defeat Tuesday in the country’s third-largest city was a warning sign. “I think it’s a warning sign for the country,” Adams said on “State of the Union,” pointing to his own tough-on-crime message during his campaign and first year in office. “I think, if anything, it is really stating that this is what I have been talking about. America, we have to be safe,” Adams added.

“Amtrak Pact Puts MTA’s Penn Station Access Megaproject Back on Schedule,” by THE CITY’s Jose Martinez: “Amtrak has agreed to add what MTA officials called “the missing ingredient” in their plan to connect Metro-North commuters to Penn Station — a project facing delays and cost overruns because of a lack of coordination between the two sides. The federally funded passenger railroad this week pledged to open the tracks along the Hell Gate Line to MTA construction crews and contractors working on the Penn Station Access project. It aims to add four new Metro-North stations in The Bronx by 2027 and create a terminal on Manhattan’s West Side for a commuter railroad that serves the northern suburbs.”

“Hochul calls for more rush hour trains after bumpy first week of Grand Central Madison service,” by WNYC’s Phil Corso: “The MTA launched its full service for Grand Central Madison at the beginning of last week, sending trains into the new station on Manhattan’s East Side underneath Grand Central Terminal. But the transition was far from smooth, with commuters hustling up and down stairs to catch connecting trains and packing into cars for the last legs of their trips. That ultimately led Hochul on Sunday to direct the MTA to modify its service starting Monday with more rush hour service to Brooklyn and longer cars servicing Penn Station.”

BUDGET BATTLE: The City Council plans to kick off budget hearings today examining the spending plan recently put forth by Mayor Adams. Members are likely to return to a common theme over the next several weeks: that the city has more money than it is letting on. “For all the ‘doom-and-gloom’ fiscal projections by [the Office of Management and Budget], our economists paint a different picture with the same numbers,” Council Member Justin Brannan, chair of the finance committee, said in a statement Friday. “The Council’s economic experts have been proven more accurate many times over the years, and as was true last year, OMB seems to again be underestimating the durability of our city’s economy.”

Indeed, the Council projected the city will have $5.2 billion more in revenue between this fiscal year and the one beginning July 1. While much of that will go toward the cost of renegotiating labor contracts with the city’s unionized workforce, lawmakers nevertheless predicted the city will have surplus cash. And they want a say on how to spend it. — Joe Anuta

WHAT ALBANY'S READING

“NY court workers fired for refusing COVID vax must be rehired with back pay as state board scraps mandate,” by New York Post’s Larry Celona, Bernadette Hogan and Bruce Golding: “New York court workers must be rehired — and given back pay with interest — if they were fired because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the state’s Public Employment Relations Board has ruled. Under terms of the decision issued last month, the Unified Court System must immediately ‘cease and desist’ from enforcing policies that require all non-judicial employees to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing. In addition, anyone ‘who lost accrued leave, compensation or employment’ will have to be made ‘whole,’ with interest paid ‘at the maximum legal rate,’ according to the Feb. 24 decision obtained by The Post.”

“A New York Town Once Thrived on Fossil Fuels. Now, Wind Energy Is Giving a Lift,” by The Wall Street Journal’s Jimmy Vielkind: “The renewed economic activity has brought new jobs and perspective to some here in Wellsville, a town of 7,000 people about 80 miles south of Rochester that blossomed in the 20th century serving the fossil-fuel economy … Some longtime residents are skeptical that a national shift away from fossil fuels will actually pan out, especially as some offshore wind projects have stalled due to permitting issues, supply-chain disruptions and inflation. But state leaders hope the transformation at Ljungström can be a model of revival for other factories—and factory towns—that accompanies the development of more renewable energy.”

“Hochul’s housing proposal for upstate leaves questions on growth goals,” by Times Union’s Joshua Solomon: “Hochul, speaking Thursday on Long Island, offered a morbid pitch for this cornerstone policy that she formally rolled out after winning her first full term in office in November. She described what would happen to towns that ‘don’t embrace the opportunity’ to make way for people who want to live in communities, particularly those in which they work. ‘If you don’t grow, you stagnate,’ Hochul said. ‘When you stagnate, you die.’”

STATE GOP UPDATE: Former state GOP Chair Ed Cox — who was revealed last week to be jockeying for his old position — said on Sunday that he believes he has enough county chair support to win the spot. “I am humbled by the support of the Upstate New York Coalition of County Republican Chairs comprising of Broome, Onondaga, Oneida, Jefferson, Chemung, Madison, Tioga, Chenango, Tompkins, Cortland and Lewis counties, which put my candidacy over 50% in the NYGOP Chairman’s race!” he tweeted. The vote is scheduled for March 13. — Anna

#UpstateAmerica: Cat cafes are slowly making it upstate — Rotterdam’s Pretty Paw Lounge is set to open in May.

AROUND NEW YORK

— The city is investigating screenshots of texts allegedly written by the black superintendent for Staten Island schools that vow to get rid of white principals.

— Farmworkers who live where they work rarely complain about rough housing conditions for fear of getting fired, evicted and potentially deported.

— DEC officials are trying to determine who owned a 14-foot reticulated python found dead on the side of the road in a Long Island suburb.

— State judges twice scolded the Adirondack Park Agency last week for incorrectly applying its oversight.

— Former Rep. Lee Zeldin said Republicans elsewhere did not “earn” a red wave and urged Conservative Political Action Conference attendees to follow his example from last November.

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: David Bradley (7-0) … SKDK’s Jacqui Newman … John Stossel … former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan (96) … Brooke Gladstone … NYT’s Eileen Murphy … Kara Carscaden … (was Sunday): Jordan Fabian … Fox News’ Chad Pergram … Ken Lerer … MJ Lee … Danny Schwarz … CBS’ Jacob Rosen … Deloitte’s Carley Berlin … Tavo True-Alcala …

… (was Saturday): UNICEF’s Cathy Russell … Emily Bazelon … POLITICO’s Mark McQuillan … Kate Bennett … Melvin Backman … Vaughn Hillyard … Lynn Sherr ... Eva Moskowitz ... Rory I. Lancman ... Russell Horwitz ... Tori Burhans Kelly … Perry B. Granoff ... (was Friday): Michael Kassen ... Danielle R. Sassoon ... David Steinhardt

MAKING MOVES: Former Gillibrand press secretary and Assembly candidate Jessica Altagracia Woolford is joining KNP Communications as a media trainer and public speaking coach. KNP is adding Emma Sprague and Matt White, co-founders of Upswing Strategies, as full partners. … James Hunt is now manager of government relations at Beamer Group. He was legislative representative for federal affairs at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Federal Affairs.

OUT AND ABOUT — Ravesa Bajo and Jordan Carmon hosted a party on Saturday night for NYT reporter Jeanna Smialek’s new book, “Limitless: The Federal Reserve Takes on a New Age of Crisis” ($30), at Someday Bar in Brooklyn. SPOTTED: Joe Weisenthal, Rachel Dry, Emma Goldberg, Matt Zeitlin, Craig Gordon, David Gura, Ben Casselman, Lydia DePillis, Michael McKee, Irin Carmon and Peter Coy.

Real Estate

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The pro-development group 5 Borough Housing Movement has got powerful new backers. National Urban League President Marc Morial and NAACP New York’s Hazel Dukes are joining the group’s push for sweeping conversion of office buildings to residential apartments, citing the affordability crisis that’s partially responsible for an exodus of Black New Yorkers. “We need more housing, we need more affordable housing, we need Manhattan to do its fair share through conversions and we need it now,” Dukes said in a statement. Specifically, they’re pushing policies also supported by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams like tax incentives to encourage affordable units in office-to-residential conversions, changing state law to make the conversions easier and lifting the floor area ratio cap to increase density in new construction.