NEW YORK
New York’s flood of migrants puts new pressure on
Adams, Hochul bond
The influx of migrants into the state is threatening
to wreck what has been a carefully crafted alliance between the governor and
the New York City mayor.
By NICK
REISMAN and EMILY NGO
08/21/2023
06:50 AM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/21/hochul-adams-migrant-crisis-new-york-00111940
ALBANY,
N.Y. — An extended honeymoon between the two most powerful Democrats in New
York may be coming to an end.
The influx
of migrants into the state is threatening to wreck what has been a carefully
crafted alliance between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, one that had
stood in contrast to the ceaseless feuds that swallowed up their predecessors.
(Think Andrew Cuomo vs. Bill de Blasio, Mario Cuomo vs. Ed Koch.)
Adams’
recent decision to send migrants outside New York City, including to
communities in key suburban House battlegrounds, was a tipping point that put
him at odds with fellow Democrats. Sharp new arguments were laid out in court
papers in recent days over how to address the migrant crisis in the state,
where more than 100,000 asylum-seekers arrived in the past year.
The court
battle — a conflict over whether the state has an obligation to house the
homeless, including migrants — could pull Hochul into a more direct role in the
crisis. Adams and his advisers have urged Albany to do more; she has countered
the state has pledged $1.5 billion to the city this year alone, as well as
deployed the National Guard and taken other steps.
The issue
now threatens to bleed into the 2024 election and could become a drag on
Democrats, including President Joe Biden, who has been criticized for not doing
more to help the city.
Publicly,
both Adams and Hochul tried to downplay the legal back-and-forth and insisted
they still have a good relationship. (“We’ve been working great together, and
we’re going to continue to do that,” Adams told reporters Thursday.)
But one
Democratic consultant familiar with the mayor’s thinking was happy to jab at
Hochul, even while insisting the “relationship will withstand this.”
“Given that
the governor didn’t do much for a year, she needed to highlight what she was
finally doing,” the consultant, who was granted anonymity to discuss the
matter, said of Hochul’s new legal filing.
Mayors and
governors in New York have been the subject of legendary verbal knife fights
and bitter rivalries — seemingly so inevitable as to make them a virtual
tradition in state and city politics.
The battles
can be bred by big egos and the institutional constraints placed on mayors, who
can often see their goals rejected in Albany. New York City, despite being the
largest city in the nation, is still heavily tethered to the power structure at
the state Capitol.
John
Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller fought over mass transit funding and rent
control.
Koch and
Mario Cuomo competed against each other in a heated 1977 Democratic primary for
mayor and a 1982 gubernatorial rematch.
Rudy
Giuliani crossed party lines to endorse Cuomo in 1994, only to have fellow
Republican George Pataki win.
Andrew
Cuomo and de Blasio bickered relentlessly over a variety of issues, including
Covid-19 response policy, Republican control of the state Senate and how to
capture a frolicking deer, which eventually died.
That’s why
it seemed so unusual when Hochul, elevated to the governorship after Andrew
Cuomo’s resignation in 2021, and Adams, who won the mayoralty a few months
later, quickly became close allies.
The two
needed each other: Adams needed his public safety agenda to get through the
state Legislature and past the governor. And Hochul, a Buffalo native, needed a
friend in New York City, where her relationships have been slow to develop,
according to people familiar with her thinking.
Hochul’s
alliance with Adams was also part of a concerted effort to contrast herself
with Cuomo, who often showed contempt for local leaders, especially de Blasio.
“I think
both of them recognized that neither of their predecessors benefited from that
kind of conflict,” former Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, said in an
interview.
Medical
personnel sets up the medical intake tent during a media tour of a shelter New
York City is setting up to house up to 1,000 migrants in the Queens borough of
New York, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023.
Medical
personnel set up the intake tent at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens
on Aug. 15, 2023, to serve as shelter to house up to 1,000 migrants. Gov. Kathy
Hochul is increasing efforts to help the city, including at the state-run
facility. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Until last
week, Hochul had also stood by Adams’ management of the migrant influx, even as
his criticism of Biden’s response strained the mayor’s ties to the White House.
Adams and Biden haven’t spoken since last year.
An attorney
for the state asserted in a letter to a judge overseeing a migrant case that
Adams’ office had mishandled migrant policy while defending the governor’s
response.
And Hochul,
after facing criticism from her fellow Democrats that she has not led
sufficiently well during the crisis, went on NY1 to try to calm matters, but
also knocked Adams’ move to send migrants to upstate motels.
“Putting
someone in a hotel on a dark, lonely road in Upstate New York and telling them
they’re supposed to survive is not compassion,” she said, while also
acknowledging the “enormous challenge” the state and city were facing.
Adams is
now arguing the state government — as well as upstate cities — need to
alleviate the burden of the tens of thousands of migrants who’ve arrived in New
York. The city is running out of space after putting migrants in hotels and
tent cities, he said, and that’s why he’s taken to sending some asylum-seekers
to other parts of the state.
The mayor
acknowledged the disagreement with Hochul last week, but downplayed its staying
power.
“We’re
human beings. I don’t agree with myself all the time. So I’m not going to agree
with someone else all the time,” Adams said Friday on a radio show.
State
Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs also sought to defuse the simmering dispute.
“I
certainly don’t think it’s a rift, because I know the two of them — and they
like each other,” Jacobs said in a phone interview.
Jack
O’Donnell, a Western New York political consultant, said the clash of this past
week between Hochul and Adams is nowhere near as personal as it was between
Cuomo and de Blasio.
“Obviously
this is a really tricky issue and there’s going to be friction, just like
there’s always been friction between the governor of New York and the mayor of
New York City,” he said. “But I expect this to be a bump in the road between
Kathy Hochul and Eric Adams.”
Joe Anuta
and Jeff Coltin contributed to this report.
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