Adams: Midwesterners
not welcome in New York
Adams out fundraises all other mayoral candidates
COURIER LIFE, JANUARY 24-30, 2020 5
BY BEN VERDE
Borough President Eric
Adams has stuck his foot in
it yet again, this time after
accusing Midwesterners of
“hijacking” apartments and
demanding they return to
wherever they came from.
“Go back to Iowa, go back
to Ohio, New York belongs to
New Yorkers,” Adams said
at a Martin Luther King day
event at Rev. Al Sharpton’s
National Action Network in
Harlem.
“You were here before
others came, who decided
they wanted to be part of the
city, those hijacking your
apartments and displacing
your living arrangements,”
Adams said.
While Adams’ comments
drew applause from the
crowd, they also spared outrage
on Twitter, with some
accusing the mayoral wannabe
of adopting a Trumpian
rhetoric of shunning
outsiders.
“Cool potential mayor of
a city that has historically
refused people from other
places,” wrote Twitter use
Travis R. Eby. “There is no
context where this sentiment
is okay.”
The beep immediately
walked his comments back,
saying he was only criticizing
newcomers who make no
effort to connect with their
adopted communities.
“Anyone can be a New
Yorker, but not everyone
comes to our city with the
spirit of being part of our
city,” he tweeted.
But it wasn’t all bad for
the beep, and some Twitter
users flocked to defend his
comments.
“I wholeheartedly agree
with you. Almost all of the
responses in this thread are
gentrifiers that don’t have
the slightest idea of the harassment
lifelong residents
have to go through forced
to leave their house to make
way for a condominium with
tax breaks,” tweeted Fabio
Bardales.
The tirade is only the
latest example of the beep
drawing fire for his off-thecuff
speeches. At a Dec. 17
ribbon-cutting for an LGBT
friendly affordable housing
development in Brooklyn,
Adams assailed the development
as exclusionary to local
public housing residents.
“I can’t celebrate a building
that is not inclusive,”
he said in comments that
were caught on tape. “I don’t
want to see beautiful floors
like this and lead paint over
there, I don’t want to see rodents
over there and comfort
over here.”
And in August, Adams
came under fire for comparing
a Twitter user to the KKK
after the critic called out the
beep for his weak stance on
placard parking abuse.
In the wake of his most recent
gaffe, one Twitter user
questioned the electability
of a mayoral candidate who
seems determined to court
needless controversy.
“I’ve been off Twitter all
day and now that I’m back,
I gotta ask: what the f–k is
wrong with Eric Adams?
Dude keeps picking fights
that don’t need to be picked,”
tweeted user Rich Mintz.
“He knows that to be mayor
you need to attract *more*
voters, right?”
Adams has historically
banged the drum for development
in the borough, and as
recently as last week was one
of the few elected officials to
show his face at the Real Estate
Board of New York gala,
known as the biggest event
of the year for the real estate
industry, which many
politicians have shunned in
recent years and sworn to
reject campaign donations
from, including fellow mayoral
candidate Corey Johnson.
BY BEN VERDE
Borough President Eric Adams reported
a massive fundraising haul for
his mayoral bid on Thursday, out-raising
all of his competitors in the 2021
election to replace Bill de Blasio at City
Hall.
The beep raised a whopping $437,099
from 1,688 individual donations in the
most recent campaign disclosure period
— from July 2019 through Jan. 11.
Adams’ haul was over $100,000 more
than the next highest candidate, City
Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D—
Manhattan) — who reported a $329,472
total over the same timeframe.
The city’s top bean counter, Comptroller
Scott Stringer, came in third in
the cash race with a $294,455 total from
1,259 donations — less than the previous
six-month period, when he reeled
in $313,000.
Campaign fi nance laws give candidates
a chance to boost their campaign
war chests, however, as political
contributions are matched using taxpayer
dollars in an effort to boost the
impact of grass-roots donations.
All three leading candidates have
opted to limit their maximum donations
to $2,000 — and therefore, the
fi rst $250 of every donation will be
matched with public funds at an eightto
one rate.
When the candidates get the public
money infusion, Adams’ recent sixmonth
total will balloon to $3.1 million,
according to campaign rep Evan
Thies.
The decision to limit himself to the
voluntary $2,000 max is a new one for
Adams — who previously accepted
contributions of up-to $5,100, the fi rst
$175 of which would be matched at a
six-to-one rate.
In order to abide by the lower limit
and receive the higher matching funds,
Adams will refund previous contributions
that eclipsed $2,000 — which he
accepted in previous disclosure periods,
said Thies.
Johnson has pledged to adhere to
an even lower limit of just $250, meaning
that nearly all of his contributions
will be matched at an eight-to-one-rate
— bringing his cash-on-hand total to
nearly $5.3 million, according to Johnson’s
treasurer, Matthew Bergman.
The matching-funds laws — which
Johnson helped write as head of the
city’s legislature — have benefi ted the
speaker the most, as he has the most
small-dollar donors at nearly 5,700.
“We’re thrilled with these results,
which show you can run a city-wide
campaign powered entirely by people,”
said Bergman.
The speaker’s role in creating the
new laws drew ire from his competitors,
however, who accused him of
helping boost his personal ambitions.
“Johnson is abusing his power
to benefi t himself — period,” said
Stringer spokesperson Tyrone Stevens
in June.
The Democratic Primary for mayor
will be in June 2021, and the general
election will take place the following
November.
Borough President Eric Adams out fundraised
other leading mayoral candidates.
Photo by Borough President’s Offi ce
Borough President Eric Adams told white gentrifi ers to go back to Iowa
at an event in Harlem on Jan. 20. Photo by Derrick Watterson