If Mayor Eric Adams were to resign, New York City’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become the acting mayor.
Mr. Williams, a left-leaning Democrat from Brooklyn, has served as public advocate since winning a special election in 2019. He was re-elected to a full term in 2021 and ran unsuccessfully for governor the next year.
Mr. Williams has been a fierce critic of Mr. Adams, assailing the mayor’s aggressive policing strategy and pushing to end solitary confinement in city jails. Mr. Williams has also cast doubts about the mayor’s ability to govern amid a swirl of federal investigations.
Within three days of becoming mayor, Mr. Williams would name a date for a special election to pick a new mayor, according to the city’s charter. The nonpartisan election could be held within 90 days. The city’s relatively new ranked-choice voting system, in which voters can rank multiple candidates, would be used.
No public advocate has become acting mayor before. Only two mayors have resigned — Jimmy Walker in 1932 and William O’Dwyer in 1950 — both after corruption scandals. The office of public advocate was created in 1993.
Mr. Williams said recently that he was exhausted and angered by the troubling headlines about Mr. Adams and his administration, arguing that the municipal corruption scandals appeared to be “the worst since Tammany Hall.”
“I’m not sure how you continue to govern with, every day, more corrupt arrests, more corrupt suspicions,” he said.
Mr. Adams has insisted that he will not resign. The mayor recently told reporters that more than 700,000 people had voted for him in the 2021 election.
“I was elected by the people of the city, and I’m going to fulfill my obligation to the people of this city,” he said.
On Wednesday, after news of his indictment was made public, the mayor made it clear that his stance had not changed.
“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
