House Dems reserve judgment on NYC mayor enmeshed in scandal

NEW YORK — Congressional Democrats are now keeping a low profile when it comes to working with New York City Mayor Eric Adams as his inner circle grapples with a myriad of federal inquiries.

Some of the New York representatives stress they weren’t close to Adams to begin with. Those who do have a relationship with the mayor are reserving judgment. All say there has been no notable disruption in how their offices coordinate to — as Adams would say — get stuff done.

Neither effusive praise nor blistering criticism, it is, collectively, a shrug. At least for now.

“I haven’t had a conversation with Mayor Adams about the investigation,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said late Tuesday as he headed into a party meeting on Capitol Hill. “He continues to do the best job that he can, and we’ll see what happens over the next few weeks.”

“I don’t think it’s impacted my relationship with him, because it’s not been a strong relationship,” Rep. Yvette Clarke said. “I think it has depressed supporters. And we’re wishing him the best.”

“I do have a working relationship with the agencies, some of the commissioners, but I don’t have much of a relationship with the mayor,” said Rep. Nydia Velázquez . “I’m worried about how effective he could be in dealing with the many tasks of running the city of New York.”

Adams has been beset by sweeping federal investigations and raids that have reached the highest rungs of his administration, leading to the recent resignations of his police commissioner and City Hall counsel. As he struggles to show New York City that he can stay focused amid what are clearly distractions, his partners in federal government find themselves inoculated from any political fallout by the relative distance he has kept from them over his nearly three years in office.

The mayor’s most high-profile partnerships with New York’s congressional delegation have involved urging President Joe Biden to reimburse the city for the billions it has spent handling an enormous influx of migrants. When the mayor raised the rhetorical temperature — he said the president had “abandoned” New York — a rift developed between himself and Biden , leaving it to Jeffries and other delegation officials to serve as go-betweens.

In past years, Adams has been an electoral liability to more vulnerable members of his party around the state thanks to his tendency to buck Democratic messaging on crime and immigration. But this year, even as Republicans use his image — and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s — to slam their opponents on border security in ads and mailers, Adams is unlikely to hurt his fellow New York City Dems because they are secure in their seats — and because none have linked themselves closely to him.

“It’s just the way the numbers are. We're in pretty good shape in New York City, and I don’t think that whatever is going on with Mayor Adams … will have any impact whatsoever at all,” New York State Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs said in an interview. “The public’s going to pretty much wait to see how that shakes out.”

Some congressional Dems do look to his office for responses on local issues as minor as a downed tree in their district, and none are making public any explicit complaints.

“The mayor’s office has been respectful and responsive in its dealings with my office and has been responsive to the concerns that I raised about the open-air drug market in the Hub of the South Bronx,” Rep. Ritchie Torres said.

“We usually work with the Queens representatives or agency liaisons, so not necessarily,” Rep. Grace Meng said. “No change so far.”

An aide to a New York representative granted anonymity to speak freely similarly said nothing has changed, adding, “We still need to work with him since he is the mayor, after all.”

Spokespeople for Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand both said the top Dems work well with the mayor and left it at that.

The federal inquiries into Adams’ inner circle appeared to escalate earlier this month when agents raided and subpoenaed his first deputy mayor, schools chancellor, since-ousted NYPD commissioner and deputy mayor for public safety, two of their family members and several members of the police department. The mayor himself had his phones seized last November as part of what appears to be a separate probe. None of them have been accused of wrongdoing.

And while some city and state elected officials who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America have called on Adams to resign, even the New York House members most critical of the mayor — Clarke and Velázquez — have yet to take that step.