New York Magazine - USA (2021-02-01)

february1–14, 2021 | newyork 9

specifically, four Black community leaders
who play a large role in signaling to voters
which candidates are worth their time—
whom Adams has yet to win over.
The Big Four have been friends for over
20 years: Hakeem Jeffries is likely the next
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representa-
tives, someone who was pegged as a political
star before he won his first election. Carl
Heastie, the Speaker of the State Assembly,
is the canny backroom operator who was
propelled into his position from his previous
role as the boss of the Bronx Democratic
Party. Greg Meeks is the understated, pro–
Wall Street head of the Queens County
Democratic Party who represents a sprawl-
ing Black middle-class district. And Al
Sharpton is, of course, still the brash civil-
rights leader who drew most of the field of
Democrats running for mayor out to his
House of Justice in Harlem on Martin
Luther King Day in the midst of a pandemic
to pay tribute before his congregation.
People close to the quartet of gatekeep-
ers say they talk all the time about thisrace.
They may not all jump in together for a
single candidate, but they are always aware
of who’s up, who’s down, who has a chance,
and who is fading fast. And Adams is very
much on the outside of the club.
“It can be infuriating,” said one Adams
ally. “But Eric very much sees himself as a
guy who got here on his own and has no use
for political games.” “I talk to all the candi-
dates all the time,” said one unaffiliated lob-
byist. “Eric is the only one who never once
wants to gossip.” But that kind of political
gamesmanship is exactly what securing the
mayoralty may come down to.
In many respects, Adams’s inability to
court the group is surprising. He’s the kind
of candidate that they would usually want
to rally around: He is faring second best
overall, trailing only Andrew Yang; raised
the most money ($8.6 million so far,
according to the New York Times); and is
starting to get endorsements from his fel-
low electeds. And unlike the other leading
Black candidates in the race—Citigroup
executive Ray McGuire and civil-rights
attorney Maya Wiley—Adams has been
involved in New York politics and govern-
ment for the past decade and a half, a key
selling point to a city looking for a tested
leader to usher it out of crippling public-
health and budget crises. And at least for
Heastie, Meeks, and Jeffries, Adams is a
fellow traveler ideologically—a center-left
Democrat who is pro-business and
opposed to the surge of largely white pro-
gressive energy that has toppled incum-
bents up and down the ballot over the past
few years; someone who has resisted calls
to defund the police and who defends the

real-estateindustrydespitepressureto

eschewdonationsfromdevelopers.

Ithasn’t goneunnoticed,though,that

Adamswasalsoa registeredRepublican

from 1997 until 200 1 anda policeofficer

for 22 years.“In thistimeofGeorgeFloyd

andquestionsof policeaccountability ... his

beinga policemanis somethingheis going

tohavetodealwith,” Sharptontoldme.

Adamshascalledforreconstitutingthe

notoriousanti-crimeunitoftheNYPDas

an “anti-gun unit” and rejects thenotion

that“youareeitherwiththepoliceor

againstthem.” TheBrooklynBPis tryingto

thread something of a difficultneedle—

securing huge numbers of Blackvoters

while also appealing to conservative-

minded whites in the outer-boroughswho

appreciate his relative moderationoncrim-

inal justice and the economy.

Part of these Democratic leaders’reluc-

tance to wade in, sources close tothefour

say, is also motivated by concernsabout

Adams’s viability in the long run.

“I think Carl thinks that Eric issmart, a

hard worker, and definitely not somebody

who is a panderer,” said one personwhohas

recently spoken to Heastie abouttherace.

But “there is a sense that he is unreliable.

You never know if he is going to saysome-

thing and self-destruct.” The aspiringmayor

has a history of making wild comments

whenever he is near a microphone.He once

told New Yorkers who were bornelsewhere

to “go back to Iowa,” and respondedtothe

Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogueshooting

by telling off-duty police officersthat they

should bring their guns to church.

Sources say these EstablishmentDemo-

crats are beginning to wonderamong

themselves if Adams is avoidingthemas

part of his strategy: Is Adams attemptingto

govern while alienating some ofthemost

important stakeholders and thecity and

federal government? Or is he,despite

spending a good chunk of his life inpolitics,

still somehow an independentoperator,

unbossed by the powers that beandonly

focused on the work at hand?

Every week that goes by withoutan

endorsement gives other candidatesan

opening. Heastie hasn’t met withAdams

since the campaign got underway.The

onlycandidatehehasmet with,infact, is

MayaWiley,whenthey had a masked

lunchat a Caribbeanrestaurantoverthe

summer.Sharptonis closetoMcGuireand,

inourinterview,soundedintriguedby

WileyandAndrew Yang.It wouldn’t bethe

first timeheprioritizedideologicalpurity

overpersonalorcommunity connection.In

2013,hewentwithBilldeBlasiooverBill

Thompson,theonlyBlackcandidate inthe

raceanda friendfora quarter-century,

because of Thompson’s defense of stop and

frisk.Butthat doesn’t meanthere isn’t any

roomforoldgrudgesorself-interest in the

race. Scott Stringer is unlikely to receive the

support of these gatekeepers primarily

because he aligned himself with candidates

running against Establishment picks, but

Sharpton has said of him, “He is steady and

he has management skills.” Meeks, mean-

while, has raised nearly $100,000 from

Citigroup in the past decade and a half and

is said to be intrigued by the prospect of a

McGuire mayoralty as well; McGuire and

his wife have donated nearly $15,000 to

Meeks since 2014.

The biggest hurdle for Adams’s future—

in and outside the mayor’s race—may be

Jeffries himself. The two arrived in Albany

at the same time, both representing the

same swath of Central Brooklyn. Jeffries was

immediately pegged as a star, someone who

could appeal both to longtime Black resi-

dents of his district and the white gentrifiers

moving in. Adams was the ex-cop who made

sagging pants and proper nutrition his pet

issues. They never got along, never endorsed

one another in their races, and were rarely

on the same side of internecine battles.

Nearly everyone I spoke to mentioned Jef-

fries as someone standing in the way of the

quartet getting behind Adams, no matter

how much he did to work for their support.

“It’s a Brooklyn fight. Why get involved

in a Brooklyn fight?” said one person close

to the quartet. “Jeffries is the next Speaker

of the House. Sharpton, Meeks, and

Heastie need to keep Jeffries probably

more than they even need the next mayor

of New York.” ■

See intelligencer.com for Freedlander’s

regular coverage of the mayoral race.

“Eric very much sees himself as

a guy who got here on his own and

has no use for political games.”