For a candidate defined by his haters for (perhaps purposeful) contradiction, Adams, in victory, couldn’t have been more clear. “America is failing in running cities,” Adams said, adding he was “the new face of the Democratic Party.”
Adams’ critics used to be to his right, seeing him in the Nineties as a “Brooklyn race hustler,” but with the added wrinkle that he was mobbed up with the NYPD. But in recent years, he’s shown a true pol’s panache, surviving atop the Brooklyn borough throughout the length of his would-be predecessor Bill de Blasio’s lowly mayoralty.
And now: Adams has outlasted the celebrity, former presidential candidate (Andrew Yang), the late choice of the democratic-socialist left (Maya Wiley) and the late favorite of the Manhattan Democratic machine (Kathryn Garcia), all while simultaneously maintaining his seemingly preposterous status as the least “woke” figure with a shot at the prize, but also the most enmeshed in the black community, and the even more preposterous drama that he might actually, technically live in New Jersey.
