Adams leading in cash from police — with elex more than a year away
Of all the political candidates running for office in next year’s city elections, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has by far benefited the most from the NYPD’s political largesse, records show.
City campaign finance filings reveal that Adams, a former NYPD captain who’s running for mayor, has raked in $23,480 from police unions, their affiliated PACs and independent NYPD officers for his mayoral run so far.
Those contributions represent 62% of the $37,885 worth of total contributions made by those sources to political candidates in the runup to next year’s elections.
The next biggest political beneficiary is a distant second — City Councilman Steven Matteo, who’s raised $1,225 for the same election cycle.
Adams’ top rivals in the mayor’s race didn’t score nearly as much cash, with Council Speaker Corey Johnson bringing in $380 from police-related donors and city Comptroller Scott Stringer drawing $110, a Daily News analysis found.
As the NYPD has become more of a lightning rod in recent weeks, support from within its ranks still has its benefits, but drawbacks clearly come with it as well.
The money itself is helpful to any political candidate trying to get out their message, but being perceived as too cozy with police can certainly pose a challenge after weeks of anti-policebrutality protests.
“It’s a liability in a world where people want the police department defunded,” said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College. “Among those voters, that could be important.”
The department saw its budget cut after protesters camped outside City Hall demanding it be slashed by $1 billion.
Still, the mayoral primary is about a year out, and a lot can change.
If this year’s uptick in violent crime continues trending upward, political support from the NYPD could be seen as a plus among many voters.
“Reality may drive it,” said Richard Flanagan, who teaches poli sci at the College of Staten Island. “Especially if the spike we’re seeing continues.”
Adams (photo) has touted his experience in the Police Department — as well as his own calls for it to be reformed over the years. He has not positioned himself as a strictly law-and-order candidate, either, and more recently called for reforms to the NYPD’s overtime policies and more modest reductions to its budget.
And while he’s been far and away the biggest beneficiary of NYPD-related contributions, he and Matteo are not the only ones who’ve received $1,000 or more from police donors for the 2021 cycle. City Council members Francisco Moya and Kalman Yeger have both hit that threshold.
Adams’ campaign spokeswoman Lisa White noted that many cops who donated to his campaign have long backed reforming the police department.
“Eric Adams has led the fight for police reform since he risked his job as an officer in the ’90s to speak out against injustices in the NYPD,” she said. “That’s why nearly all of the law enforcement contributions to Eric’s campaign come from reformminded black and brown officers who are putting their jobs at risk to change the NYPD from within.”