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Politico
Politico
National
Joe Anuta

Adams to fellow Dems: Ignore my crime playbook at your peril

Eric Adams, pictured, cited increasing Republican support among Asian and Hispanic communities as a contributing factor to Lee Zeldin’s strong showing in New York City. | Alex Kent/Getty Images

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that fellow Democrats’ inability to talk about crime is driving some immigrant communities into the arms of Republicans. His home borough of Brooklyn could serve as a prime example.

In contrast to the rest of the country, Republicans made big electoral gains in deep-blue New York earlier this week: They flipped three House districts and won an open seat. Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin came within 6 points of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. And in several state contests in Brooklyn — New York's deepest reservoir of Democratic voters and Adams’ home turf — GOP candidates ousted a pair of longtime Democratic incumbents and came so close to flipping two other seats that votes are still being counted.

“When I'm on that 4 train talking to everyday New Yorkers, they're very clear on what they want. And if we don't start understanding that you're going to see the hemorrhaging of other communities,” Adams said during an unrelated press briefing. “When you look at Southern Brooklyn, it's a high-immigrant population, and their concerns are those bread-and-butter issues.”

Adams cited increasing Republican support among Asian and Hispanic communities as a contributing factor to Zeldin’s strong showing in New York City.

Chung Dick, a member of the state’s Conservative Party executive committee, said the trend in Brooklyn’s Chinese community has accelerated since the onset of the pandemic.

“When we had the citywide [mayoral] election last year, we saw a huge spike in Democrats turning to Republican candidates,” he said. “This year there are even more.”

In addition to crime, which has consistently polled as voters’ top concern, Dick said there is a perception the city is placing a higher concentration of homeless shelters in Chinese neighborhoods. Those concerns were amplified by WhatsApp messaging threads within the community and frequent visits from Zeldin.

“He came at least 10 times during the last six months,” Dick said. “He is not a stranger in the [predominantly Asian] Sunset Park and Bensonhurst areas.”

The story was similar in blue-collar neighborhoods that include swaths of Russian and Ukrainian communities. Two senior Democratic Assembly members, Peter Abbate and Steven Cymbrowitz, were ousted by voters after serving for decades in the capital.

“A lot of fear was put into them. If you look at the areas here we all have crime, but it's not like a crime wave,” Abbate said. “People were telling me that I defunded the police — I’m one of the biggest supporters of the police.”

If Democrats have any hope of winning back these voters, political consultant George Fontas said in an interview, candidates need to break with leadership in Albany.

“The Democratic Party that exists in the state Legislature is wildly out of step with the voters of these districts,” he said. “[Candidates] need to get back to their roots as a moderate community with moderate policies. That doesn’t align with leadership, but that is what it is going to take to win these districts.”

Adams has been one of the most notable critics of state public safety policy. After winning his mayoral election last year, the mayor has repeatedly blamed reforms to the state's bail laws for a rise in crime. While he softened his criticism toward the end of the governor's race — when Zeldin's own bail reform critiques buoyed him to within striking distance of Hochul — Adams resumed the drumbeat Thursday.

“This catch, repeat, release system is just destroying the foundation of our country,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. “And that's why we are losing this election. Six out of 10 New Yorkers in the Hispanic and Asian community voted Democrat compared to seven to eight out of 10 last time. We are losing the base Black and brown who really believe in those basic things: Public safety, housing, education.”

Going forward, Democrats should be less concerned about alienating the left wing of the party and more worried about these communities in the middle, Adams said.

“Democrats had a good story. They just didn't tell that story,” he said. “And for whatever reason, they felt if you came out openly and said I support my law enforcement, like I do all the time, they felt as though they were going to lose the fringe arm of the party.”

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