Democrats worry NY mayor's scandal may hurt Harris and tight House races
WASHINGTON – Some Democrats are worried the corruption scandal surrounding New York Mayor Eric Adams could hurt Vice President Kamala Harris in the neck-and-neck presidential race and tank the party’s bid for control of the House of Representatives.
The jitters come as Adams, who was hit Thursday with a federal corruption indictment, has refused to resign while suggesting he’s the victim of a White House vendetta.
“While he is innocent until proven guilty, I am certainly not in agreement that he was targeted by the Biden-Harris administration,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic kingmaker, told USA TODAY. “That’s garbage.”
The embattled mayor claims he's a victim of federal payback for complaining about the financial strain of absorbing 210,000 asylum seekers from the southern border.
Six Democrats – current and former elected officials, consultants and party leaders – said they worry the mayor’s allegations could hurt Harris in battleground states by bringing more attention to immigration, a subject on which former President Donald Trump handily leads the vice president in polls.
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And, with Trump now boosting Adams' claims of White House persecution, politicos are concerned the mayor could spoil the Democrats' chances of retaking the House of Representatives by refusing to resign, becoming a poster boy for misgovernance five weeks before Election Day.
Republicans currently have an eight-seat majority in the House, with three vacancies in Democratic districts. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would become the first Black speaker if Democrats prevail.
The Adams mess has Democrats “worried about House seats in suburban districts” outside the city, said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime New York political consultant.
Flanked by clergy and local civil rights figures – but no Democratic elected leaders – at a press conference after his indictment was unsealed Thursday, Adams said: “I think we need to ask the federal prosecutors who gave the directive or the order.”
“I don't know,” he said. “You should ask them who gave the directive.”
Donald Trump weighs in
Rushing to Adams’ defense – and amplifying his statements – was former president Donald Trump, who claimed to have predicted the charges.
“I said, 'You know what? He'll be indicted within a year,'” Trump told reporters. “And I was exactly right.”
Sharpton said he will meet mid-week with his fellow New Yorkers, Minority Leader Jeffries of Brooklyn and Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, to discuss the Adams imbroglio.
“It does not speak well of him that Trump is complimenting him,” Sharpton said of his troubled ally.
'It's in Sharpton's hands'
Adams and Sharpton have had a long relationship. Adams served an early board member at the Democratic mainstay's civil rights organization, the National Action Network, and was baptized by Sharpton last March in a ceremony at the Rikers Island jail complex.
Adams performed security work for Sharpton in the mid-1990s.
"If he said resign, I just don't think there's anything Adams could do but step down," said Ron Howell, author of "King Al," a political biography of Sharpton.
"I guess you could say it's in Sharpton's hands," he added.
A spokesman said Jeffries "is not scheduled to meet with other elected officials to discuss the mayoralty.” Sharpton is not an elected official. Meeks' office didn't reply to a request for comment.
A 'weaponized' scandal
Federal investigators are also probing Adams’ inner circle, including a former police commissioner, two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor and, in a separate matter, the city's interim police commissioner.
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has also joined the investigation, seizing the phone of top City Hall aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin on Friday as she got off a flight from Japan.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams, but Sharpton and others have warned her against that politically fraught step.
"There is a fear that this corruption stuff will be used against them in Congressional and Senate races," said George Arzt, a veteran New York political consultant.
Between the Adams indictment and the federal corruption conviction of former Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Republicans have a ready-made attack ad, Arzt said.
"Trump is backing Eric now, but it's going to be used against Democrats," he added.
"I see it as a concern if it's weaponized," Sharpton said.
More: New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleads not guilty in federal court to corruption charges
The cloud over Adams, coupled with any new indictments, could turn uncommitted New York voters against Democratic candidates, several political operatives said. The party is fighting to pick up four seats it unexpectedly lost to Republicans in 2022.
"Whenever there's a scandal on one side of the aisle or the other, that party tends to lose independent or swing voters," said Robert Hornak, former executive director of the Queens Republican party.
'He can't function'
Pressure is building for Adams to quit, several Democrats said, in part because city government is paralyzed by the overlapping federal investigations.
“He is presumed innocent,” State Sen. Liz Krueger told USA TODAY. But “he can’t be mayor. He can’t function and his people can’t function.”
The mayor said Thursday the swarm of investigations wouldn't affect the city's operations.
Adams is charged with accepting illegal foreign campaign donations and free travel from Turkey and of defrauding the city's public campaign finance system of $10 million. He denies the charges.
A national Democrat who asked not to be identified said Sharpton and Jeffries are being forced to confront Adams over his potential damage to Harris ? and to Jeffries’s shot at becoming the first Black speaker of the House.
More: NY Mayor Eric Adams charged with bribery, foreign funding
In a video released the day before his indictment was made public, Adams framed himself as a martyr for good government.
“I always knew that if I stood my ground that I would become a target – and a target I became,” he said.
“The federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief,” he added, linking the issue to his legal quagmire.
State Attorney General Letitia James is reportedly examining the Adams administration's contracts for emergency migrant housing.
“The evidence against Eric is frankly voluminous, and his political defense that the Biden-Harris administration unjustly indicted him, a leading Black elected official, is silly and absurd,” said Mark Green, who served as public advocate, the city’s number two elected post, in the 1990s.
The ploy “hints at how hard his defense appears to be,” Green said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Eric Adams scandal could hurt Kamala Harris, some Democrats fear