Eric Adams Stopped By Lunch Yesterday

He's had a good 48 hours

Eric Adams stopped by lunch yesterday. He was a surprise guest at our table of five at Michael's in Manhattan. Our host was an impressario of the media world and widely connected. The other diners were names you might also recognize. It's a group that meets periodically to shoot the breeze about the issues the city, nation and world are talking about.

It was a surprise, even to our host, that the mayor stopped by. Adams was with one of our invited group, who was therefore running late, and our host said bring the mayor along.

I had never met the mayor, but before we knew he'd be joining us, we had already been discussing him as perhaps the last hope standing in the way of a professed socialist and vilifier of Jews becoming mayor of the financial and (at least outside Israel) Jewish capital of the world. We shall see what Andrew Cuomo decides to do, but his refusal to immediately commit to the independent race he had previously indicated he would pursue, and the stench surrounding his complete collapse in the Democratic primary were already leading people to believe he would not continue. The New York Post has reported that he’s decided to stand down, though Cuomo has yet to say anything officially. The math of the general election makes it important that only one of Cuomo or Adams pursues the general election race as they would cannibalize each other's votes. Mayor Adams fully intends to pursue his independent campaign for reelection, and Cuomo knows this. Everything considered, Cuomo seems likely to blink - if he hasn't already closed his eyes altogether.

For today, I want to keep things at a very high level. Adams has a very good chance of winning. Here are some reasons why: