(The Center Square) — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is running for mayor against Eric Adams, becoming the latest Democrat to challenge the incumbent in next year’s primary.
Lander, 55, leaned into Adams in his first campaign video posted on YouTube, criticizing his management of the nation’s largest city and vowing to improve affordability and quality-of-life issues.
“Why does a city that means so much to so many have leadership that delivers so little for so few?” Lander said. “Nothing can replace New York City, but we can replace a leader when they fail the basic tests of the job.”
Lander is the first high-profile Democrat to announce a challenge to Adams. Two other Democrats — former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn — have set up exploratory committees and started fundraising for mayoral bids.
As New York City Councilman, he advocated for defunding the NYPD in 2020 as protests against the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor engulfed the city. He is also involved in a legal challenge to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s last-minute decision to put the brakes on New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which called for setting a new $15 toll on drivers to enter Manhattan’s business district.
Adams was first elected to New York City’s mayor’s office in 2021, the first election in which the city used ranked-choice voting for a Democratic primary. The system allows voters to “rank” candidates in their order of preference, with the first candidate to reach 50% winning the election. He defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election with 67.4% of the vote.
But his poll numbers are sagging as he gears up for a reelection bid, with a historically low 28% approval rate from New York City voters.
A December Quinnipiac University poll found that Adams had the lowest job approval rating for a New York City mayor since the poll started polling New York City registered voters.
Pollsters have cited his unpopular budget cuts, handling of the migrant crisis and a federal investigation into his 2021 campaign fundraising.
A recent survey from the Manhattan Institute, a conservative-leaning think-tank, suggests that New Yorkers may be interested in voting for another candidate. The poll of 700 likely voters, conducted between April 8-11, found that 65% of New Yorkers would vote for “someone else” over Adams, who garnered only 16% of the vote in the survey. Another 19% were undecided.
