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Mayor Eric Adams did not attend the first candidate forum for the New York City mayoral race, but his record — and the criminal charges he faces — received plenty of attention on Saturday from the Democrats who are running to unseat him.
The attacks covered Mr. Adams’s indictment on federal corruption charges last month, but even more criticism was heaped on his budget cuts to free preschool, stalled bus improvements and his response to the city’s affordability crisis.
“Eric Adams promised to be the mayor for communities like yours, and long before all of these corruption scandals, he has failed to do so,” Brad Lander, the city comptroller, said at the forum at a church in the Bronx. “Let’s be clear: You deserve a safer, more affordable, more livable and better-run city.”
The event served as the unofficial on-the-ground start to the mayoral race ahead of the Democratic primary next June. Mr. Lander is among five Democrats who have announced campaigns against Mr. Adams, and the race is expected to intensify after the presidential election early next month.
How Eric Adams Could Leave Office, and Who Hopes to Succeed Him
Mr. Adams’s political future is in doubt after federal prosecutors indicted him on corruption charges in one of several inquiries ensnaring City Hall.
The forum was organized by Kirsten John Foy, a civil-rights leader and Pentecostal minister, who endorsed Mr. Adams’s progressive challenger, Maya Wiley, in the 2021 primary. Mr. Foy said that he had invited Mr. Adams and was disappointed that he had not come.
Two big-name potential candidates — former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Letitia James, the state attorney general — were not there. A new survey on Saturday from The New York Times and Siena College found that Mr. Cuomo and Ms. James would likely be the early front-runners in the race, with 22 percent and 19 percent of the primary vote. Mr. Adams was the choice of 12 percent of registered Democrats.
At the forum, the participants also took aim at Mr. Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 after facing a series of sexual harassment allegations. Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens, said that there was “no reason to recycle scandaled men in City Hall or anywhere else.” Mr. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.
Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn, said that voters should be wary of candidates who had been in leadership for a long time: “Don’t just listen to the promises. Examine the record.”
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, responded on social media by listing some of the former governor’s accomplishments. Mr. Cuomo spoke at an event in Washington, D.C., on Saturday with Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to former president Donald J. Trump, held by the National Italian American Foundation.
The most searing criticism of Mr. Cuomo at the forum came from Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and the official who would become acting mayor if Mr. Adams were to resign. Mr. Williams said that Mr. Cuomo was a “very bad person to elect mayor” and compared him to Mr. Trump.
“Like Donald Trump, he is a master at using people’s trauma against them and so be very careful when it seems like he’s saying something you might identify with,” Mr. Williams said. “It’s a very dangerous skill set he has.”
Mr. Wiliams is not currently running for mayor. But if he became acting mayor, he would likely run for a full term. He received the support of 6 percent of Democratic voters in the new poll.
The five declared candidates, all of whom are to the left of Mr. Adams, shared a positive vision for the city’s future and ambitious plans, including one by Mr. Myrie for universal after-school programs and one by Ms. Ramos for universal child care. Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens, proposed free buses and rent freezes on rent-stabilized apartments.
Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller, called the Adams administration a “roving crime scene” and a “government of minimalism.” He said that the mayor’s affordable housing plan was not ambitious enough and that his own housing proposal would go much farther.
With the primary only eight months away, Mr. Foy said in an interview that he wanted to hear where the candidates stood on key issues after weeks of headlines about Mr. Adams’s indictment.
“It’s important that we progress the discourse beyond the mayor’s legal woes,” Mr. Foy said. “Millions of New Yorkers have a stake in this.”
Mr. Adams, a moderate Democrat, has said that he is innocent and has no plans to resign. His re-election campaign is focused on public safety and jobs.
The mayor’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
The field of challengers also includes Jim Walden, a former prosecutor and political independent, who announced his campaign on Thursday. Mr. Walden, a former Democrat, has not decided which primary he will run in.
The candidates are moving quickly to raise money. Among the challengers to Mr. Adams, Mr. Lander has the highest fund-raising total so far. Mr. Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, said on Thursday that he raised $139,000 during the first 24 hours of his campaign.
Mr. Foy said that his group, the Arc of Justice, would hold a candidate forum in each borough before endorsing a candidate. He said that it was an “unforced error” for Mr. Adams to skip his event.
“It’s a mistake for him not to show and to hear about the critical questions from this borough,” he said.
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