Hochul and Adams: A match made in Albany

Gov. Kathy Hochul has prided herself on her improved relationship with the mayor of New York City compared to her predecessor, who seemed to take pleasure in needling the Big Apple’s executive. As Mayor Eric Adams officially resigns himself to being a one-term mayor, the legacy he leaves behind will be shaped in large part by the significant accomplishments he won alongside the governor – the fruit of a partnership that often benefitted him more than Hochul. 

In a statement released following Adams’ Sunday announcement that he has suspended his reelection campaign, Hochul said that she was “proud to work with” Adams over the past four years. “I have been grateful for his partnership,” she wrote. That partnership wasn’t always easy for her.

The most trying times for the governor came in the wake of Adams’ federal indictment one year ago. The governor faced immense pressure to take the unprecedented step to begin removal proceedings for Adams with a little-used part of the city charter and state constitution. 

Instead of doing so, Hochul used her influence to gently nudge (or perhaps forcefully demand) Adams to replace ethically-challenged top-ranking cronies with reliable public servants. His appointments of the likes of Maria Torres-Springer to first deputy mayor and Jessica Tisch to police commissioner earned him rare praise during the incredibly turbulent time. Hochul received public backlash both for failing to remove the mayor and for even weighing the option. But the relative normalcy didn’t last for very long.

In February, the Department of Justice ordered federal prosecutors to drop the charges against Adams – prompting speculation that the mayor had cut a deal with Trump – and Torres-Springer and other deputy mayors resigned soon after.

In her statement on Adams’ decision to end his campaign, Hochul mentioned the City of Yes as one of her and the mayor’s joint accomplishments. The major rezoning initiative to spur affordable housing creation is a marquee achievement for the mayor, one that could define his legacy positively despite the turbulence of his final year. It required intense negotiation with the City Council and years of advocacy. Ultimately, Hochul’s 11th-hour commitment of $1 billion toward the project – a result of Adams’ continued positive relationship with the governor – helped get it over the finish line. 

“Recognizing that New Yorkers deserve a working relationship between Albany and NYC, Gov. Hochul never let herself be backed into a corner on Adams, despite the enormous pressure generated, both directly and indirectly, by his wild behavior,” said Amit Bagga, a Democratic consultant who has worked for both the governor and former Mayor Bill de Blasio. “He was always going to be his own undoing, and she never let that distract her.”

Hochul proved a reliable ally to Adams in the Capitol, a needed friend during negotiations given his overall poor relationship with legislators. That paid off for Adams in 2024 when the governor successfully pushed for a two-year extension of mayoral control of schools against the wishes of the Legislature. The issue is usually thorny, but it turned even more contentious with the promise and eventual release of a Department of Education study on the practice. Adams included the extension in his first Tin Cup Day in 2022, but lawmakers resisted for two years until Hochul went to bat for the mayor. It had taken a bit of time for Hochul to find her sea legs and establish her own negotiating tactics (i.e. delay until victory) to get her demands in the budget.

The governor and mayor shared many priorities, particularly around housing and public safety. This proved beneficial to Adams as Hochul fought hard for her own agenda in a way that allowed him to also declare victory. 

On the housing front, the mayor wanted to see an extension of the long-standing 421-a tax credit program to promote the development of affordable housing. But Democratic lawmakers wanted to bring the subsidy to an end – and succeeded initially when they allowed the program to expire.

But as part of her own landmark housing package, Hochul managed to pass a new, substantially similar version of the tax credit. And the 2024 budget permitted projects that had not been completed before the expiration to still benefit from the old tax credit retroactively. Chalk up a win for Adams on that front.

Adams also pushed for rollbacks to bail reform and other criminal justice reforms passed in 2019, which he blamed for crime and chaos in the city. It just so happened that Hochul decided this would be her hill to die on for several budget cycles, and she managed to pass two rounds of bail law changes and a rollback of the state’s discovery laws. She held up the budget multiple times in order to force legislative leaders to agree to the changes, which many of their members opposed. Another win for Adams.

The mayor may have hit paydirt when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations that he has denied. After winning the Democratic mayoral primary the same year, Adams made a show of playing nice with Cuomo. And the then-governor seemed ready to turn over a new leaf as well and stop antagonizing the city’s mayor. But if the animosity seen between the two on the campaign trail is any indication (Adams recently called Cuomo “a snake and a liar”), that alliance may not have lasted long once the governing started. “Cuomo and Adams use power differently,” said Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party. “(Cuomo) may have not responded to Adams’ skill as a retail politician well nor his bravado.”