Adams vs. Adams: New York's top Democrats collide in the city's path

As Mayor Eric Adams grapples with low ratings, a federal investigation and potential challengers to his re-election in New York City, a Democratic ally has emerged as an unexpected opponent: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Ms. Adams, who shares many of the mayor's moderate views, has become one of his most powerful and outspoken critics, uniting the most diverse City Council ever and serving as a powerful wedge against him.

On Tuesday, Ms. Adams led the Council in overriding the mayor's vetoes of a bill that would ban the use of solitary confinement in the city's jails and another bill that would require police officers to identify the race, age and gender of most people who stop them from registering.

The actions marked an unusual rebuke of a New York City mayor by his Democratic colleagues: It was only the second time in nearly a decade that the Council overrode a mayor's veto.

When she was elected Council President in 2022, Ms. Adams was seen as a compromise candidate, a moderate Democrat who could work with Mayor Adams without being beholden to him. But in recent months she has regularly started to play the role of the mayor's political opponent.

She has questioned Mr Adams's management of the budget and criticized his approach to dealing with the influx of migrants as inhumane. She urged the Council to pass bills banning solitary confinement and improving police accountability, despite the mayor's objections, and won enough support to override his vetoes.

Ms. Adams, 63, said she and the mayor, who is not related to her, spoke regularly and were “quote, unquote friends.” But she said they differ “in the way we think, the way we govern and the way we move.”

And as her criticism of the mayor's policies increases in frequency and intensity, she has also become more adept at seeking attention.

Earlier last week, she hosted a news conference outside a church in Midtown Manhattan that serves asylum seekers arriving from the southern border. She criticized the mayor's decision to impose a 60-day limit on how long migrant families can stay in shelters and introduced families she said would be harmed by his policy.

Less than 24 hours later, she gathered reporters at City Hall's famous rotunda to denounce the mayor's veto of the police accountability bill. The mayor seemed annoyed: His deputy chief of staff tried to remove reporters' chairs from Ms. Adams' news conference before finally giving up.

“She is one of the few counterbalances to a mayor who doesn't listen to anyone outside his inner circle,” said Kirsten John Foy, president of the activism group Arc of Justice. “He's a mayor who doesn't have the willingness to compromise with people who are equal stakeholders, and Adrienne Adams doesn't have that..”

Left-wing leaders and advocates don't view Ms. Adams, the first Black woman to lead the Council, as progressive, but say she has given them something they didn't expect at City Hall: a seat at the table.

“I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Adrienne is a champion or the face of the left,” said Anthine Pierre, executive director of the Brooklyn Movement Center. “But you don't have to be left-wing to support values ​​and policies that actually impact people's lives.”

In recent months, Ms. Adams — who opposed defunding the police in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd — has advocated deemphasizing the use of law enforcement to promote public safety.

“Our communities are only being offered more police and criminal justice approaches as stand-alone solutions,” Ms. Adams said recently at a meeting with religious leaders.

At another meeting, Ms. Adams, the third woman to hold the position of Council President, noted that she was “the first mother and grandmother” to speak. She said the goal of both criminal justice and immigrant care should be to “minimize harm,” but said the mayor's stance on these issues is “actively hurting people.”

Ms. Adams said she has not undergone any transformation, suggesting her bolder challenges to the mayor were more likely to be a gradual evolution.

“This is the same old girl that has always been here,” Ms. Adams said at a recent news conference. “What you see now compared to 2017, or two years ago, when I was first chosen by this great body to represent them as a speaker, is growth.”

The next big battle in the Council is the push to close Rikers Island, one of the nation's most dangerous and troubled prisons, by a stated 2027 deadline. The mayor, who counts the corrections officers' union among his strongest allies, has said that he does. I don't see a way to close the prison.

Ms. Adams responded by creating a second version of the independent commission that originally called for closing Rikers to create a new path to closing Rikers.

Jumaane Williams, the public advocate who introduced police accountability legislation to the council, said he had expected to work regularly with Mr Adams, a former police captain who led a group called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care who often spoke out against police brutality.

Instead, Mr. Williams has found a more natural partner in Ms. Adams.

“We must treat crises with humanity and ensure the budget reflects these issues,” Williams said. “The speaker has adhered to that. I'm not sure what happened to the mayor.”

The political differences between Ms. Adams and the mayor belie their shared background. They both grew up in Queens, South Jamaica, were classmates at Bayside High School and worked their way up in local politics. She supported his candidacy for mayor; however, he did not immediately support her bid to become Council President, choosing instead to support Francisco Moya.

When it became clear that Ms. Adams had the votes to become chairman, the mayor capitulated. “How can I hate someone who has the same last name?” Mr. Adams said at the time. “I love Adrienne.”

The mayor recently returned to that theme, insisting that their recent political differences had not affected their relationship.

“Adrienne Adams, I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it,” the mayor said recently at his State of the City address, calling her his “sister.”

Several people familiar with her thinking say Ms. Adams feels disrespected by the administration. In a recent statement criticizing his veto of the solitary confinement bill, she asked him to recognize that they were “equal” branches of government.

“By saying 'we're friends' and 'we're just the two of us as a team,' it's an attempt to diminish the power of her criticism,” said Christina Greer, a Moynihan Public Scholars Fellow at the City University of New York . York. “In city government, Ms. Adams is as close to an equal as the mayor can get, someone who can and will challenge him.”

There have been dust accumulations. After vetoing the police bill, Mr. Adams questioned whether Council members understood how the legislation would impact police and suggested riding with officers during a shift.

Mrs. Adams looked angry. “Obviously we've been around for a while,” she said. “I've personally already done them.”

She also hasn't been afraid to flex her muscles on the City Council, though not without some backlash. Keith Powers, a Manhattan councilman and one of Ms. Adams's most loyal allies, was told just an hour before the meeting, after a new Council took office in early January, that he would not be reappointed as majority leader.

Progressive leaders and groups have also accused Ms. Adams of retaliating against three council members who voted against the city's $107 billion budget in June by stripping them of their committee chairmanships, while others who voted against the budget kept their leadership positions or took a got new ones.

Chris Coffey, a Democratic political strategist, wondered whether the decision to fire Mr. Powers would undermine the speaker at a time when she needs to keep the City Council together.

“He went out and fought hard for every bill that was a priority for the speaker,” Mr. Coffey said. “From a loyalty point of view, there's something politically mind-boggling to me: You just benched the most loyal man you had.”

Despite the criticism, Ms Adams retains strong support from Council and appears undeterred when it comes to challenging the Mayor.

“I think we both realize the work we have to do,” Ms. Adams said at a recent news conference. “It's on one side of City Hall. I'm on the other side of City Hall.'