Mayor Eric Adams' colliding crises

New York City Mayor Eric Adams Credit: Marcus Santos
Daily Point
Mayor, migrant crisis, and money probes converge
Mayor Eric Adams’ abrupt turnaround to New York City Thursday from a trip to Washington that was supposed to be for meetings on the migrant crisis left political observers and consultants dumbstruck.
As he doubled back, Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, was having her house in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood raided by the FBI. A City Hall spokesman was quoted as saying only that the mayor ditched the meetings to deal with a “matter.”
In real time it was hard to believe the cancellation and the bust were coincidental. And the questions about the mayor’s actions were obvious. What could have been so critical as to skip meetings with White House and congressional officials about what the mayor himself has called a migrant crisis that could “destroy” the city.
“The move looks awful for him, in terms of atmospherics, even without any sense that there’s anything more to this raid that would affect him directly,” one senior Democratic Party consultant rooted in Kings County politics told The Point.
“If I were him, I would have continued with my schedule,” the consultant said. “He raises eyebrows by returning, with no indication of anything other than that Suggs is his fundraiser.”
Nothing fuels rampant cloak-and-dagger speculation like a vacuum of information, however temporary. This round began instantly with word of the Brooklyn raid. Did Adams cut the trip short to have a conversation with someone in person, as one longtime court observer asked.
The instant link in the public’s mind between the trip’s cancellation and a probe that touches on Adams’ campaign fundraising came about so easily because there’s a history to such queries. These date back at least to when he was a state senator involved in early plans for the Aqueduct casino in Queens. His role in choosing an operator for the enterprise drew scrutiny from the state inspector general.
This year, his former buildings commissioner was indicted on bribery charges. So was a retired NYPD inspector who once worked and socialized with City Hall’s police captain-turned-politician. Those allegations involved allegedly illegal donations to Adams' 2021 campaign.
More than $2.5 million has been raised for his 2025 campaign, in which Suggs has been instrumental, according to published reports.
— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com
Pencil Point
The juggler

Credit: CagleCartoons.com/Dick Wright
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Reference Point
Our takes on voting then and now

The Newsday editorials on Nov. 2, 1975, left, Nov. 2, 1965, and Nov. 2, 1944.
It will come as little surprise that at this time of year, every year, Newsday’s editorial board focuses on elections. Whether it’s a presidential race or off-year election, the board weighs in, a point confirmed by a scan of Newsday editions published on Nov. 2.
Back in 1944, the board congratulated Long Island’s residents for being first and third among counties in the state in voter registration increases.
“These figures are praiseworthy. They point to the interest evinced by Long Island residents in the issues of this most important of elections,” the board wrote, a judgment keen observers will note takes its place among the umpteen other “most important election of our time” pronouncements from various analysts over the decades.
In considering the presidential contest between incumbent Democrat Franklin Roosevelt and GOP challenger Thomas Dewey, both New Yorkers, the board channeled projections from Republican county leaders J. Russell Sprague (Nassau) and W. Kingsland Macy (Suffolk) that their respective GOP pluralities “may well be the deciding factor in which direction go New York’s important 47 electoral votes — and therefore, perhaps the nation.”
Spoiler alert: FDR won New York by 5 percentage points and the nation by 7.5 points, but perhaps the most arresting figure in that passage was the state’s 47 electoral votes; today, New York has but 28.
In 1953, Newsday’s board showcased another of its lasting concerns: ballot propositions. In that year, there were nine constitutional amendments, including a proposal that the governor and lieutenant governor be elected as a team, rather than separately. The board encouraged a yes vote and the measure passed easily.
The 1959 ballot brought nine more amendments, the most controversial of which would raise the debt limit for New York City (it was defeated, despite Newsday’s advice to vote “yes” for what essentially was a home-rule proposition) and permit the construction of the Adirondack Northway, the precursor to I-87 (that passed).
In 1975, Newsday’s board considered another seven constitutional amendments, the most famous of which was Amendment No. 1, the Equal Rights Amendment guaranteeing women equal rights under the law. The board urged a “yes” vote but the amendment was soundly defeated, 57% to 43%. Nearly a half-century later, that amendment is still in the news; in January, the State Legislature passed a more expansive version of the Equal Rights Amendment in a second consecutive session, which means New Yorkers will have another opportunity to ratify it on the 2024 ballot. And Newsday’s board undoubtedly will weigh in again.
But the most consistent election message from Newsday’s board through all the decades was the one that appeared on Nov. 2, 1965 under a simple headline: Vote!
The words underneath were timeless.
“The exercise of this right is one of the greatest American privileges,” the board wrote. “Good government requires that you cast your ballot.”
— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com, Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com
Correction
In Wednesday’s edition of The Point, the mailer with charges of “bullying” against Nassau legislative candidate Patrick Mullaney should have been attributed to the New York State Democratic Committee, rather than to rival candidate Alexis Pace. For the corrected version, click here.
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