Not long after celebrating his first 100 days as mayor this spring, Eric Adams was by the pool in Beverly Hills, California, thinking about the future.
Wearing a crisp sky blue suit and fuchsia tie, Mr. Adams spoke to a crowd of vegetarian enthusiasts about his allegiance to a plant-based diet in a recent event. event at the home of Naren Shankar, a Hollywood host and producer of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
The underlying motivation, however, is about another passion: fundraising for his 2025 re-election campaign.
Even as Mr. Adams was struggling to tackle a series of pressing challenges in New York, he launched an unusually early fundraising campaign to secure a second term, a feat without mayor Da. any black of New York City achieved.
The fundraisers coincided with Mr. Adams’ attempt to establish a national profile. In March, the mayor hosted an event in Chicago at the home of Desirée Rogers, the former White House social secretary to President Barack Obama, attended by Robert Blackwell Jr., a businessman and ally. of Obama.
This summer, Charles Phillips, managing partner of Recognize, a technology investment firm, is planning to hold a fundraising for Mr. Adams – possibly “out-of-east”, in the Hamptons, he said in an interview.
The mayor’s team hopes he can raise the most of his money by the end of the summer, according to a Democratic consultant who was briefed on the campaign’s plans. A $2 million haul, along with the city generosity The right fund program, could allow him to hit a $7.9 million spending limit for the 2025 mayoral primary. Collecting a giant chest can now fend off opponents. potential competition and capitalize on what remains of the mayor’s honeymoon period, when he was still relatively popular and sponsors were desperate for his attention.
“You want to raise money as a show of force,” said Chris Coffey, chief executive officer of Tusk Strategies and Andrew Yang’s mayoral campaign manager. “You don’t want to spend your final year running around fundraising.”
There is little precedent for such an early push. Bill de Blasio, in his first year as mayor, focused on nurture money for candidates to the State Senate and the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit group that supported his agenda – both became part of the federal and state investigations into his fundraising. Michael R. Bloomberg doesn’t have to bother with fundraising; he used his fortune to run for a second term, then hold in hand his personal philanthropy to get support to get around term limits in 2008, record spending of $102 million into a third term.
There are also political risks to Mr Adams’ fundraising strategy, which could make him an absentee leader overly focused on politics.
When the mayor was in Beverly Hills, risk level for the newly increased coronavirus cases in New York City, stoking fresh concerns about the city’s economic recovery. Federal officials have considers taking over the troubled Rikers Island prison to deal with the increased violence and death of prisoners there. One cop slashed in Brooklyn by a man carrying a 16 inch knife.
And when his Return flight from California suddenly canceledMr. Adams had to scrap most of his events for the day, including a City Hall rally to put pressure on the State Legislature to expand the mayor’s control over the state legislature. schools in the city.
Mr Adams has seen his approval rating drop as he faces growing pressure to tackle rising crime and the affordable housing crisis. Just 29% of New Yorkers said his performance was good or excellent, and 56% said the city was on the wrong track, according to a recent metric. poll of NY1 and Siena College.
Mr. Adams defended his vote, arguing that New Yorkers were tough graders and many gave him a “fair” rating, which he considered a C.
“Listen, the C is not an A, but the C is not an F,” Mr. Adams told reporters.
The mayor has proven to be an effective fundraiser. He raised over $9 million for the Democratic primaries and general election last year and another $10 million in matching funds. Mr. Adams spent most of last summer Travel to the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard to pitch affluent sponsors who support his brand’s centralism, attending up to five fundraisers a day.
Mr. Adams, a former state senator and Brooklyn district president, has sometimes tested the boundaries of campaign-financial and ethical laws. He has been investigated for his role in assisting an end-to-end computerized lottery contractor for Aqueduct Racecourse and has criticized for being greedy for money from developers who are lobbying to support important partitioning changes.
As a mayoral candidate, Mr. Adams has raised money from numerous donors, including Real estate developer, billionaire, cannabis investor, hedge fund executive, Republican and working class New York. He has raised more than $2.8 million from donors outside of New York City, and a super PAC supporting his campaign has raised about $7 million.
Now as mayor, Mr. Adams is once again starting to get excited about fundraising. On June 3, after delivering a kick-off keynote at Queens, Mr. Adams attended a fundraiser at a construction company’s office in Midtown Manhattan, led by Bravo Group chief executive Ehab Shehata, chair. At the mid-business day event, Mr. Adams told the crowd that the city could only recover if crime levels dropped and he was a man for work, according to an event attendee.
Mr. Shehata did not respond to a request for comment. But he’s hardly the only local executive eager to win favor with the mayor.
Marc Holliday, chief executive officer of SL Green Realty Corp., which co-owns the new One Vanderbilt skyscraper near Grand Central Station, contacted real estate executives in April on behalf of the campaign. Mr. Adams’ 2025 translation. The tower has been the site of at least two appearances by the mayor, including a Wells Fargo product launch event in April, where the mayor parted ways with model and actress Cara Delevingne, earning herself a spread in rumor page.
“At a time when NYC needed it most, Eric stepped up to mayor and quickly became the face and driving force behind New York’s recovery,” Holliday wrote in an email. “Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated.”
The first public revelations of the 2025 mayoral race will go into effect next month and will provide a clearer picture of the sponsors Mr. Adams is leaning on.
Barry Gosin, chief executive officer of Newmark Group, a commercial real estate company, is hosting a fundraiser for Mr. Adams on Wednesday on the fifth floor of a skyscraper near Grand Central Terminal. The attendees are request donate between $400 and $2,000 per person.
“This is an opportunity to support a great, authentic mayor,” said Mr. Gosin. “He is giving his best, and I think what he is doing is the right thing to do. But that is my opinion”.
The Chicago fundraiser was attended by Mr Blackwell, the leader of a table tennis company, who donated $400 to Mr. Adams’ mayoral campaign last year. It was co-hosted by Mrs. Rogers and Carol Adams, former presidents of the DuSable Museum of African American History.
“To run for office, money is needed – the city is expensive, the advertising market is expensive. “And you have to tell your story before someone else does.”
Again fundraiser in May at the Kimberly . Hotel in Midtown Manhattan were attended by Taj Gibson, the New York Knicks forward, and Jean Shafiroff, a charity ring fixture who attended a soiree for Mr. Adams in the Hamptons last summer.
“We have to give him a chance,” she said. “I like what he stands for. It’s really unfair to judge anyone after three months.”
