| | | |  | | By Sally Goldenberg, Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Cris Seda Chabrier
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Four deputy mayors resigned from their posts and questioned Mayor Eric Adams' ability to run the city. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images | NEW YORK MINUTE: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is holding a press conference today after four of the city’s deputy mayors resigned. Lander — who’s running against Mayor Eric Adams — is demanding a plan to manage the departures of the officials. WEEKEND OF CHAOS: Eric Adams’ political future has never looked so grim. Not since he was federally indicted, forced to oust scandal-scarred aides and cozied up to President Donald Trump for legal mercy has he faced the sort of existential crisis that barreled through City Hall over the weekend. Four deputy mayors — the ones who keep the government running and replaced the aides whose homes were raided by federal agents — told Adams they’d had enough and would be stepping down. Details on when they’re leaving and who’s replacing them are unclear, but the grave message isn’t. “Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles,” wrote First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, who runs the city, and fellow DMs Meera Joshi and Anne Wiliams-Isom in a statement to staff. Prior to resigning, they unleashed their frustrations to Adams Friday night at Gracie Mansion, motivated by their collective horror that the Democratic mayor allegedly cut a deal to help Trump deport migrants in exchange for legal leniency. (Adams’ attorney and Trump’s DOJ disputed that claim, laid out in a resignation letter from prosecutor Danielle Sassoon.) Chauncey Parker, who oversees public safety, also plans to resign. Parker, who replaced unindicted co-conspirator Phil Banks, whose phone was seized by federal agents last year, worked for the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan that charged Adams over alleged corruption. The mayor’s response to the avalanche of bad news, just four months before his reelection? Trademark bravado. “They are attempting to rewrite my entire history for their own agenda,” he said about his opponents, our Janaki Chadha reports. “They were protesting me the third day I was in office. The same people, the same people have been rallying up, protesting over and over again.” He boasted of his “ability to lead through turmoil” as he exited a Brooklyn church event hosted by supportive clergy, during which he echoed his 2021 stump speech line, “I am you.” During his remarks, he trashed far-left Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — a political foe. He also bizarrely referenced Mein Kampf, Adolf Hilter’s manifesto on German domination rooted in Jewish hatred, to illustrate the start of opposition movements. The implausibility of it all almost seemed to be the point. Williams, who would temporarily become mayor if Adams resigned or were forced out, said in response: "It remains hard to watch someone in crisis. My priority, now and always, remains serving New Yorkers and ensuring the stability, functionality and continuity of government.” But the calls for resignation continued, as City Council Speaker and one-time Adams ally Adrienne Adams issued a demand the mayor step down Monday night. “We have endured enough scandal, selfishness and embarrassment, all of which distract from the leadership that New Yorkers deserve. This is the opposite of public service,” said the legislative leader, who has been embroiled in fights with the mayor for years. For all the negativity piling up, including reticence from Adams’ own allies, his political team expressed confidence. “We’re going to bring the message of success,” advisor and friend Frank Carone, former chief of staff, said this weekend. “100 percent, all in. No hesitation, no doubt. And we’ll let the voters decide.” — Sally Goldenberg IT’S ONLY TUESDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from Uber: Insurance Hitting Uber Riders in the Wallet. New York State has some of the most onerous and expensive insurance laws for rideshare trips in the country and Uber riders are paying the cost. In December 2024, 25% of rider fares on average went toward government-mandated commercial insurance for Uber rideshare trips. Lawsuit abuse and the litigation environment in New York are driving up costs of everything even more, including insurance premiums. Learn More. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City. WHERE’S ERIC? Also in New York City, speaking at a NYPD Guardians Association’s Black History Month Celebration. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I know first-hand how difficult it is to run this city in the crosshairs of Donald Trump. The DOJ put Mayor Adams in a box last week, and he didn’t find his way out in time.” — Former Mayor Bill de Blasio on the mounting problems facing his successor.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | 
Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing pressure to demand Mayor Eric Adams' resignation. | Alex Kent/Getty Images | WHAT WILL HOCHUL DO: Gov. Kathy Hochul holds Adams’ fate in her hands. Hochul, who has the power to launch a complicated process to remove the mayor, said in a Monday evening statement the resignations called into question “the long-term future” of Adams’ administration. “Tomorrow, I have asked key leaders to meet me at my Manhattan office for a conversation about the path forward, with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York,” she said. Not ruling out seeking the mayor’s ouster is ominous for Adams’ future as City Hall was rocked by resignations hours earlier by crucial appointees. The governor has tried to triage Adams’ administration and helped replace prominent officials in his orbit who had fallen under an ethical cloud. Replacing Adams himself is a more complex — and fraught — undertaking for the moderate Buffalo Democrat. “She probably didn’t want to be in this position at all,” said Democratic operative Lupe Todd-Medina. Hochul must walk a political tightrope. Seeking to oust the city’s second Black mayor would need to come with political cover for the governor, who faces her own reelection next year. A vacancy in the mayor’s office would catapult left New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams into power — a prospect not favored by the business community. And taking Adams off the political chessboard would open the door even wider for Hochul’s old boss, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo given his shared political base with Adams. She would be moving against an ally — a mayor she has worked well with despite the long history of governors and mayors being at each others’ throats. Indeed, Hochul has insisted her relationship with Adams has defied the dynamic that dominated the terms of Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio; George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani; and Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch. But Hochul wanted to work with Adams on a shared goal of boosting New York City public safety. She needed someone with Adams’ credentials — a former police captain who has knocked Albany’s left-leaning criminal justice laws — to help her on an issue she struggled with when running in 2022. “We said at the very outset that the era of the Governor of the State of New York and the Mayor of the City of New York fighting is officially over,” Hochul said last March at a public safety-themed event with Adams. — Nick Reisman
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Zohran Mamdani and Zellnor Myrie are expecting to get approved for multi-million matching funds payouts. | Cris Seda Chabrier/POLITICO | PAYDAY: Zohran Mamdani and Zellnor Myrie expect to get approved for multi-million dollar matching fund payouts at the New York City Campaign Finance Board’s monthly meeting today. Mamdani should get $2.97 million deposited in his account in the coming days, his campaign told Playbook; Myrie more than $2 million. Lander and Scott Stringer have already received matching funds payments from a board that denied them to Adams. The next payment date isn’t until April 15, leaving the four challengers with a major financial lead for at least two more months. — Jeff Coltin FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has endorsed Mark Levine for New York City Comptroller, Playbook has learned. “He has stood with our union time and time again, most recently on our contract fights at REI, with GrowNYC and Barnes & Noble. Even assisting us on our historic statewide bill, the Retail Worker Safety Act,” RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement. “At a time when our city needs every cent put to work in the right way, we need a leader in the Comptroller’s office reviewing every contract thoroughly.” Levine, the Manhattan borough president, is also endorsed by Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Dan Goldman, Jerry Nadler and Ritchie Torres. He noted, “It was RWDSU workers that kept New York City fed at their own personal risk when COVID was at its worst.” In what is shaping up to be a two-person race for comptroller, Levine’s opponent Justin Brannan over the weekend was endorsed by Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, POLITICO reports. Brannan’s union nods include the Transport Workers Union. Brannan also won the backing of four clubs in Levine’s borough of Manhattan over the last week: Downtown Independent Democrats, Chelsea Reform Democratic Club, Three Bridges Democratic Club and Village Reform Democratic Club. — Emily Ngo, Sally Goldenberg More from the city: — Cuomo has an $8 million war chest, but it will be difficult to spend it in the mayoral race. (POLITICO) — Former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s twin brother impersonated him on multiple visits to a Manhattan precinct as part of a scheme to influence nightlife enforcement. (Gothamist) — Complaints about parked cars blocking fire hydrants have more than doubled since the start of the pandemic. (New York Post)
| | | | A message from Uber:  
| | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | | 
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins joined other top Democrats in asking Mayor Eric Adams to step down. | Michael Santiago/Getty Images | THE ADULT IN THE ROOM: Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins over the weekend became the most prominent state-level Democrat to call on Adams to step aside. “I just really feel there’s a lot of work that we need to get done and it may be time for him to step aside and deal with the things he’s facing,” Stewart-Cousins told POLITICO. Her call for Adams to step aside was first reported by The New York Post. It was another moment in which the Yonkers lawmaker has been the first — and one of the most crucial — officials to call for a resignation, like when she pressed for Cuomo to step down in 2021. Stewart-Cousins, whose weekly news conferences make her one of the more accessible Albany lawmakers, has quietly emerged as one of the more forceful leaders. She hasn’t been afraid to buck the governor. Stewart-Cousins navigated Senate Democrats through the rejection of the Hector LaSalle nomination as the Court of Appeals top judge, was one of the few prominent defenders of the controversial bail law and she disclosed it was the governor who had initially sought (and later scuttled) a proposal to expand her powers for scheduling a special election. — Nick Reisman BRONX TO BUFFALO: Rep. Ritchie Torres’ listening tour of New York is off to a low-key start. The South Bronx Democrat made his first foray to Hochul’s home turf in western New York last week as he weighs a primary bid against her. The visit made the local news in Buffalo, but the trip otherwise drew little attention. Torres’ team put together a highlight reel of the local news clips from the visit. — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — State lawmakers want to know why Thruway rest stops don’t have charge stations for medium and heavy-duty electric trucks. (Buffalo News) — Trump’s tariffs could pose a risk to crucial New York energy projects. (POLITICO Pro) — Corrections officers are striking at multiple New York prisons. (Times Union)
| | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin spoke on DOGE, federal green grants and offshore wind. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | ZELDIN’S ALL IN: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former GOP House member, recently sat down with Playbook to discuss his new role. On clawing back $20 billion in federal green grants: “EPA having less oversight than it would if EPA was housing the money, approving the grants, we want to get that money back to the EPA. EPA wants to reassume control over the money to make sure that we are following our statutory obligations and we can be accountable to Congress once the financial agent agreement is terminated.” (More in E&E on how the move could plunge the agency into legal peril.) On offshore wind, including in his home region of Long Island: “I support President Trump, and I’m committed to implementing his orders, his direction on this front. Personally, I’ve long believed in an all-of-the-above approach towards energy, and I’ve long advocated against the desire in a state like New York to put ourselves in a box of relying so much on something like offshore wind. … I believe that we should be safely extracting natural gas from the southern tier, that we shouldn’t be denying every application for a new pipeline that comes into Albany.” (More in the New York & New Jersey Energy newsletter.) On the role of DOGE, or the Department of Governmental Efficiency, at the EPA: “We’re working closely with DOGE, but the people who are working with DOGE are EPA employees. We don’t have anyone in the building who aren’t EPA employees, so that’s important to understand. It’s EPA employees having access to EPA systems. … DOGE is able to assist in helping us do our review of all of the grants at EPA.” — Emily Ngo More from Congress: — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has a new web portal for public workers to blow the whistle. (Yahoo News) — Rep. Claudia Tenney wants Trump’s birthday to be a national holiday. (New York Post) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Trump of a “toxic bait-and-switch” presidency. (ABC News)
| | | | We’ve re-imagined and expanded our Inside Congress newsletter to give you unmatched reporting on Capitol Hill politics and policy -- and we'll get it to your inbox even earlier. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — Cuts to research centers are drawing protests on Long Island. (Newsday) — District attorneys pledged to help wrongfully convicted people, but in some cases made matters worse. (NYS Focus) — New York regulators moved to strengthen cannabis enforcement. (POLITICO Pro)
| | | | A message from Uber: Insurance Laws and Lawsuit Abuse create more costs for Uber Riders
New York residents already shoulder some of the nation's highest auto insurance costs, paying an average of $3,840 a year for full coverage.
Similarly, the mandatory cost of rideshare insurance per trip in New York is among the highest in the country. One reason behind this is the $1.25 million in liability coverage when a passenger is in the vehicle, which is 25 times the liability requirement for personal vehicles.
Insurance premiums continue to rise in part because of the litigation environment in New York. Lawsuit fraud and abuse drives up costs for everything, including insurance rates.
Uber is pushing for commonsense legislative changes that keep all trips covered while bringing down the cost of trips.
Learn More. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman WEEKEND WEDDING: MANY CONGRATULATIONS to Playbook’s Jeff Coltin and Caitlin Dorman, director of operations at City & State, who were married Saturday in Jersey City. (J and C in JC!) The happy couple met in 2017, when they were crushing on each other at City & State. We wish them all the very best as they keep crushing on each other years and years into the future. Jeff and Caitlin, who call the Upper West Side home, plan to honeymoon in South Africa — but only once the mayoral race is over. (Photo) SPOTTED: Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff attending the Sunday matinée of Audra McDonald in “Gypsy” at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. “She drew extended cheers, screams (!) and a standing ovation as she took her seat just before curtain,” per a tipster. “Then she went onstage after the final curtain to meet the cast.” WHAT RUDY, MIKE, BILL AND ERIC ARE WATCHING: “Saturday Night Live” parodied New York’s last four mayors in a musical skit at the show’s blowout 50th anniversary celebration. (YouTube) MEDIAWATCH: Political reporter Reuvain Borchardt is leaving Hamodia to join The Voice of Lakewood. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: former Rep. Eliot Engel … former New York City Council Member Steve Matteo of United Activities Unlimited … Heastie spox Heriberto González-Andino … Innocence Project’s Amanda Wallwin … Corning Place’s Josh Poupore … Fitch Ratings’ Tammy Gamerman … Sway’s Tom Gray … Cahill’s Chuck Buynak … Keith Urbahn … FT’s Janan Ganesh … Ben Wofford … NBC’s Rebecca Kaplan … (WAS MONDAY:) Larry Schimmel, general counsel to Attorney General Letitia James … Newsmax’s Haley Gillman … Davidzon Radio’s Gregory Davidzon … Tusk Strategies’ María Navarro Gallegos … Lander aide Evelin Collado … Sam Vinograd … Betsy Fischer Martin … Lachlan Markay … Paris Hilton … Kelsey Rohwer … Edith Honan … Will Hayworth … Curtis Tate … (WAS SUNDAY:) Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club President Allen Roskoff … Former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos … Former NYC Council Member Inez Barron … Tony Utano … Pablo Zevallos of the Legal Aid Society … Oaktree Solutions’ Gary Jenkins … Robert Allbritton … Carl Icahn … Jennifer Steinhauer … Ty Trippet … Marissa Levey ... Kevin Robillard … Joe Concha … Meredith Fineman … Ed O’Keefe of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum … David Keating … Anna Tuman … Andrew Kirk … Adam Sharp … … (WAS SATURDAY): Assemblymember Catalina Cruz … Nicholas & Lence’s Joshua Knoller … Communities Resist’s Nick E. Smith … United Way of New York City’s Grace Bonilla … Siena’s Don Levy … Riders Alliances’ Danny Pearlstein … Kasirer’s Meghan Mangini … Anne Neuberger … former Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) (6-0) … Jonathan Salant … Fox Business’ David Asman … Dan O’Brien of Fidelity Investments … Art Spiegelman … Jed Rubenfeld … Grace Lloyd … Jen Wlach … Beth Solomon … (WAS FRIDAY:) Former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz … Steve Tisch … Sir Martin Sorrell Missed Friday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here. | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
