No signs Adams will leave mayoral race as Cuomo's decision to run looms

Despite sagging poll numbers and facing federal corruption charges, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he is still in it to win it when it comes to the mayoral race. But the wildcard remains: Will former Gov. Andrew Cuomo jump in?

A re-energized Adams reappeared following a recent health scare, sounding ready to fight for his job. The message he delivered at an interfaith breakfast was aimed in part at calming some of the concerns with the base that helped elect him.

"Who started this stupid rumor that I was stepping down on Friday," a fiery Adams said. "Let me tell you why people are angry, because finally one of you is in charge of the city."

Meanwhile, one potential rival has been working his way through the city's Black churches: former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He is not saying it publicly, but Cuomo is waiting in the wings.

The former governor and his associates have been discussing their strategy for possibly entering the mayor's race with several sources, including Reverend Al Sharpton.

"I think that we've got to be very careful to have the funeral before the body's dead," Sharpton said in a one-on-one interview.

"I think that Andrew Cuomo is in a position where he has to, if it is his ultimate goal to run, has to prepare to run, but not look like he's pushing out the second Black mayor."

Even though Cuomo is not a declared candidate, a new ad campaign is already working to block him in the Black community and beyond.

"Andrew Cuomo didn't care much about Black New Yorkers until he got into trouble, and then that’s when he needed us to bail him out," a recent ad claimed.

The anti-Cuomo campaign is produced by a group calling itself "United for a Brighter Tomorrow," whose donors are not disclosed.

"Oh and what about the sex scandal that cost you your job?" another ad jabs.

Cuomo has denied wrongdoing. His spokesperson responded in a statement, "This is all premature, but New Yorkers aren't stupid," and called the ad sponsors "extremist."

There is a similar pro-Cuomo ad campaign in the works, led by some of his longtime associates, according to emails reported in the New York Times.

Recent polls suggest, despite the scandals that caused him to resign in 2021, Cuomo could enter the 2025 mayoral race as the frontrunner -- with money to spend and New York name recognition dating back to his father Mario Cuomo's three-term reign as governor.

Adams is not the only candidate in the race launching preemptive strikes against Cuomo.

"It has been offensive, it has been frustrating to see Andrew Cuomo come into our sacred spaces and then when he was up in Albany, make cuts to our hospitals," Zellnor Myrie, state senator and mayoral candidate, said.

Harlem Reverend Johnnie Green said he thinks Cuomo accomplished a lot as governor and has strong support in his community.

"We are living in a time where there are no squeaky clean candidates," Green said. "I don’t think that New Yorkers are gonna base this on race as much as on competency."

Asked if he thinks Adams has lost his Black base, Sharpton said, "I think that people would be very, very unwise to count out that he still has a big political base."

Sharpton added that he wants to wait and see what happens with Adams' criminal charges before deciding whether he would back Cuomo. When Cuomo faced impeachment in Albany, Sharpton at the time said he believed Cuomo could no longer effectively govern.

So what changed?

"The fact that we just elected a president that is a felon," Sharpton responded. "The rules and the climate and the baseline has changed. We've changed everything with Donald Trump."

"I think it applies to Mayor Adams and everybody else. The one achievement Donald Trump has done is he's lowered the bar so low that I don't even know we can find it," Sharpton said.