Hamptons hopping with Eric Adams

Politico

07-07-2025

THE EAST END ELECTION: The Hamptons-hopping Mayor Eric Adams is raising the temperature on former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he tries to get the business community to coalesce behind him in the general election.
The mayor spent his Saturday in ritzy Bridgehampton and Southampton where he knocked Cuomo and made his pitch to the assembled elites.
His message for the well-to-do donors? Zohran Mamdani, the anti-American candidate, demeans you. I, the working-class lover-of-country, will comfort you.
His message to Cuomo? Get. Out.
'This must be a city where you don't have mayors say, 'We don't need billionaires in our city' and, 'We're going to tax only white communities,'' Adams said to the crowd of expensively dressed onlookers in the summer heat of Bridgehampton.
He was referring to Mamdani's stated beliefs that there shouldn't be billionaires and that the tax burden should shift 'to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.'
'I want the person that drives the limousine to love the city and the person in the back seat of the limousine to enjoy the city,' Adams told attendees.
The mayor's bid to woo the billionaire class is picking up steam as the Cuomo campaign continues to dither over whether he'll actively run in the general election. Cuomo's name will appear on the ballot, but how much effort he puts into the race remains an open question.
Meanwhile, Mamdani's foes are scrambling to find a viable candidate to beat him in November.
This afternoon the Cuomo campaign backed long-shot independent candidate Jim Walden's call for an independent survey that would poll who has the best shot to beat Mamdani in the general election.
If Walden, Adams and Cuomo simultaneously run, 'it all but ensures a socialist victory,' Cuomo's campaign said in a statement supporting Walden's survey idea. The campaign added, 'We do not see any path to victory for Mayor Adams.'
Adams' remarks Saturday on Long Island's East End came after a breakfast-time speech at the well-known Hamptons spot 75 Main, where Cuomo happened to have dined the night before, PageSix reported. But a source close to Cuomo said his visit to the Suffolk County shores had nothing to do with politics.
While speaking with the Hamptonites, Adams took a shot at the former governor.
'I don't have anything negative to say about Andrew,' he said. 'But you took it for granted. New Yorkers have five fingers. They love the middle one the most. You can't just think because of a name that you're going to be the mayor of New York City.'
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for the former governor, noted Cuomo received 24,000 more votes than Adams in 2021.
The mayor's weekend appearances were topped off by a spot on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' this morning, when he described a phone call he had with Cuomo in which the former governor displayed 'the highest level of arrogance.'
'Has [Cuomo] asked you to step aside?' one of the program's hosts asked Adams.
'Yes,' Adams replied. 'I said, 'Andrew, are you that level of arrogance?' I'm the sitting mayor and you expect for me to step aside when you just lost to Zohran by 12 points?… You lost. They heard your message and you lost.' — Jason Beeferman
From the Capitol
PATERSON'S PLEA: Former Gov. David Paterson got into the act of trying to narrow the general election field too today.
He held a press conference in midtown with billionaire Republican donor John Catsimitidis, who appeared alongside Adams this weekend in the Hamptons, and conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg.
The trio were there to echo the urgency felt by the city's business class that a single challenger must emerge to take on Mamdani in the general election.
'We can do this, but it's going to take a united effort, and it's going to take some sacrifice that someone is going to have to make,' Paterson said.
The former governor, who backed Cuomo in the primary, declined to name who he thinks should drop out of the election, or how they might be persuaded.
'As public polls and surveys are revealed over these coming weeks, it is my hope and belief that the other candidates still in the race will come to the logical conclusion that New York City needs the most effective leader to navigate what comes next and that cannibalizing each other's support will be doing a disservice to the millions of people who call New York 'home',' Paterson wrote in a statement. — Amira McKee
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
HOMAN VS. MAMDANI: The anti-Mamdani drumbeat continued to emanate from Republican quarters as well.
President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan pledged earlier today at the White House to keep the pressure on New York City and intensify deportation efforts, waving away Mamdani's resistance to Trump's agenda.
'Good luck on that because we're going to be in New York City, and President Trump said it two weeks ago, we're going to double down and triple down on sanctuary cities,' Homan said, responding to a reporter's question about the Democratic nominee for mayor.
'We'll flood the zone in 'sanctuary' cities,' Homan continued, adding that if migrants can't be arrested at jails because New York City and other 'sanctuaries' limit cooperation between federal immigration agents and local law enforcement officers, then they'll be stopped 'in the community' and 'at a worksite.'
Mamdani, a state assemblymember, confronted Homan in March when the border czar visited Albany. 'Do you believe in the First Amendment?' Mamdani shouted at the time.
Trump has said that Mamdani would be arrested if he blocks Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officers from detaining New York migrants.
'The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported,' the Queens Democrat said last week in a statement. 'Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city.'
Mamdani has more recently said the Trump administration's threats are a distraction from the president's unpopular 'one big, beautiful bill.' — Emily Ngo
FROM THE DELEGATION
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Upstate Rep. Josh Riley has about $1 million cash on hand for his reelection bid, even if it's not yet clear who his GOP challenger or challengers may be.
The freshman Democrat raised $725,000 in the past three months and nearly $1.6 million for the cycle, his campaign told Playbook ahead of next week's second-quarter filing deadline.
Riley, a top GOP target in the midterms, has lambasted Trump's domestic policy megabill as the 'one big, beautiful scam.' Others in his party are sure to run against the cuts to Medicaid and food aid too, while Republicans defend the bill as providing tax relief.
'Out of touch Democrats Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, Pat Ryan and Josh Riley's vote is a betrayal of New Yorkers,' National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Maureen O'Toole told Playbook on Sunday. 'Instead of standing up for New Yorkers, they voted to raise taxes, kill jobs and gut national security.'
In his House floor speech opposing the megabill, Riley accused the GOP of 'shitting on the middle class.'
He used similarly fiery language in a fundraising text to supporters today that listed how the legislation hurts upstate families.
'Republicans might be okay with letting working families, farmers, and kids get less so that billionaires and big corporations can have even more,' Riley wrote, 'but I sure as hell am not.'
IN OTHER NEWS
— HOW BIG, BEAUTIFUL, BILL AFFECTS NYC: The sprawling federal law is expected to force Adams to decide whether to cut or backfill a host of city programs. (THE CITY)
— GAME OF CHICKEN: Adams wants Cuomo out. Cuomo wants Adams out. But neither is budging. (POLITICO)
— DECONGESTANT PRICING: Air quality has improved or remained steady across the five boroughs since congestion pricing launched in January, according to new Department of Health data. (Streetsblog)
Missed this morning's New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.