Good morning. It’s Friday. Today we’ll look at Mayor Eric Adams and the candidates challenging him in the Democratic primary. We’ll also find out about fake IDs that are so good, one bar owner calls them “unbeatable.”
If you want a say in deciding who’s going to be the next mayor in New York City, the conventional wisdom is that you should vote in the Democratic primary in June. Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by nearly seven to one in New York City — typically making the general election in November rather one-sided and anticlimactic.
If you’re not registered as a Democrat, today, Feb. 14, is the last day before the June 24 primary that you can become one. It’s also the last day you can become a Republican, or join a third party, if that is your preference. After today, the New York City Board of Elections will not accept changes in party affiliation again until after the primary.
Changes must be made in person at the Board of Elections office. The deadline to make changes online was Thursday.
Friday’s deadline applies only to switching parties or declaring a party affiliation, if you had registered as an independent. If you can’t remember whether you checked a party affiliation when you registered, you can look up your status here. And if you’re not registered, there’s no need to rush. You have until June 14, 10 days before the primary, to submit your registration form.
“This is a way in which a small number of party leaders persist in controlling the nominating process, essentially by excluding a significant percentage of the electorate from participating in the most important election of this year, the primary,” said Ester Fuchs, a professor of political science and public policy at Columbia University, who said that at least one in five active voters in New York City is registered as an independent and ineligible to cast a ballot in the primary.
Someone who has apparently considered switching party affiliations is Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat. My colleague Nicholas Fandos writes that Adams has apparently also given thought to seeking a waiver to run in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.
Adams took the unusual step of calling Mike Rendino, the Bronx Republican chairman, on Monday. The mayor has also spoken with Andrea Catsimatidis, the chairwoman of the Manhattan Republican Party, though someone familiar with his deliberations said it was not clear if they had discussed the campaign.
Adams still says he plans to run as a Democrat. “I am not running as a Republican,” he said in a written statement on Wednesday.
But reaching out to Republican county leaders is a sign of how unusual his standing is right now.
Another sign is the unusually large field of challengers who hope to capitalize on his lagging poll numbers and his complicated legal history. Because of his five-count federal indictment, Adams has a dubious status as the first mayor in modern New York to face criminal charges, although the Justice Department has ordered prosecutors in New York to drop the case.
That order led to the resignation of the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan on Thursday. And when Justice Department officials moved to transfer the case to the department’s public integrity section in Washington — which oversees corruption cases — the two men who led that unit also quit. Taken together, the three resignations were a striking repudiation of the Trump administration’s effort to force the dismissal of the charges against the mayor, who has argued that the prosecution was politically motivated.
Since Trump’s victory in November, Adams has cultivated a relationship with President Trump, who had made a similar claim about the federal case against him as well as the state case brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, which ended with Trump convicted of 34 felony counts.
Adams’s sudden closeness to Trump has alienated some of the mayor’s Black supporters. “I’m not anti-Adams,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime ally of the mayor, “but I’m anti-Trump, and a lot of people in the Black community will have the same feelings.”
As an incumbent Democrat, Adams would not typically face a serious primary challenge in June. But this campaign cycle is different. At least seven Democrats have already announced that they are running. Here is a detailed look at them. Among the seven:
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Brad Lander, the city comptroller, is leading in fund-raising. Jumaane Williams, the public advocate, and Tiffany Cabán, a progressive City Council member, have both agreed to rank him first or second on their ballots under the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
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Another candidate, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, received a potentially significant endorsement this week from Representative Dan Goldman, who led the first impeachment case against Trump. Goldman called Myrie a “true visionary” who would stand up to Trump. Perhaps more significantly, Goldman also sent a fund-raising appeal for Myrie to his own email list.
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Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens who has gained momentum among progressives, was endorsed by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America and the left-leaning New York Communities for Change. He assailed Adams, saying the mayor had “narrowed the focus of city government to a singular goal: keeping himself out of prison.”
But for Adams’s challengers — and Adams himself — the campaign may depend on this question: Will Andrew Cuomo run, or won’t he? Cuomo, a Democrat who resigned as governor in 2021 in a sexual harassment scandal, regularly leads in polls even though he has not made his candidacy official.
Weather
Expect sunny skies and moderate winds with a high in the mid-30s. In the evening, it will be mostly cloudy with a low around 27.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Feb. 17 (Presidents’ Day).
The latest New York news
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Justice Dept. targets New York: The Trump administration sued New York over its migrant policies and accused state officials of prioritizing “illegal aliens over American citizens,” citing a law allowing drivers to obtain licenses in New York regardless of their legal status.
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Donor indicted on theft charges: Weihong Hu, a hotelier with close ties to Mayor Eric Adams, was accused of stealing tens of millions from a temporary housing program that was designed to stop the spread of Covid-19 in New York’s jails.
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Schools react to Trump’s D.E.I. orders: Some universities are scrubbing websites and canceling events to comply with executive orders targeting diversity efforts, while others are promising to resist.
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Born on the subway: A 25-year-old woman from Florida who had been missing since last summer gave birth to a daughter on a W train in Midtown Manhattan.
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Charged with killing his roommate: A 23-year-old man was charged with second-degree murder after his roommate’s remains were found in a suitcase in the East River.
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A pet detective is on the case: Chad Tavernia, a retired New York State Police investigator, uses a thermal-imaging drone to help owners find and rescue their lost dogs.
‘Unbeatable’ fake IDs bedevil bouncers
Scoring a fake ID has been a rite of passage for generations of underage New Yorkers. Getting one used to involve handing over cash for some laminated product slapped together by amateurs in a dorm room or a head shop.
But now there are holograms, bar codes and laser engraving that can fool the electronic scanners in bars and marijuana dispensaries.
“They are unbeatable,” said Martin Sheil, 62, who owns the Josie Woods Pub in Greenwich Village.
A 20-year-old junior from New York University presented a convincing-looking fake with a bar code and a hologram at a bar on Avenue A in the East Village on a recent Friday night. The bouncer inspected it and waved her inside along with a friend, also a 20-year-old junior who was using a real ID that belonged to an older friend. The students tucked the IDs back in their purses and hit the bar for vodka and sodas.
Some bars have invested in sophisticated equipment to catch the sophisticated fakes. Gregory Clark, a bouncer at the Playhouse bar in the West Village, runs ID cards through a TokenWorks ID scanner, as well as a Patronscan device similar to what federal screeners use at airports. The equipment cost around $6,500, he said.
“This is like our own little police database,” Clark said, adding that he had seized dozens of fake IDs in recent months.
METROPOLITAN diary
Walking slowly Sunday Phone Call, Nov. 24, 2024
Dear Diary:
I was walking slowly up the steps at the Lexington Avenue-59th Street subway station. When I got to the street, a well-dressed woman who appeared to be in her 30s or 40s tapped me on the shoulder.
“Hi,” she said.
She asked whether I spoke English.
Yes, I said.
Sir, she said, when you walk up so slowly, the whole stairs back up.
I was puzzled. I explained that I used a cane and could not walk that fast. What am I supposed to do?
Come at a different time when it is not crowded, she said before walking across the street while shaking her head.
I love New York.
— Ardavan Nozari
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you next week. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Natasha Cornelissen and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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