NEW YORK MINUTE: City Hall is set to announce four new deputy mayor appointments today as Mayor Eric Adams seeks to shore up his administration amid several high-level resignations. Jeffrey Roth, who has worked for the National Guard, the city’s Department of Veterans’ Services, the FDNY and was a short-lived nominee to the Bill de Blasio-era Taxi and Limousine Commission, will be named deputy mayor for operations. Suzanne Miles-Gustave, who was most recently the acting commissioner of the state Office of Children and Family Services, will assume the role of deputy mayor for health and human services. Kaz Daughtry, deputy commissioner of operations at the NYPD, is set to become the deputy mayor for public safety, a move first reported by The New York Times. And Adolfo Carrión Jr., the Housing Preservation and Development commissioner, will become the deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce — a position that had been combined into the first deputy mayor portfolio. Despite First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer also resigning, the city was not planning to name her replacement Friday. — Joe Anuta GREEN FLAG: After spinning the tires and tuning the engines for months, the New York City mayor’s race really got going Thursday. Andrew Cuomo faced reporters for the first time in years, for one example. Regrets? He’s had a few, POLITICO’s Jason Beeferman reports, like failing to put more state police on city subways to offset future budget cuts. But then again, too few to mention. Cuomo left out accusations of sexually harassing 11 women in the workplace — which he denies — and his administration’s handling of nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, Cuomo did it his way. He locked down endorsements Thursday from former Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr. (who backed Mayor Adams in 2021) and Teamsters Local 237 (who backed former Comptroller Scott Stringer in 2021) — underscoring how much of a dominant force the former governor is in the Democratic primary. Adrienne Adams also faced questions for the first time as a mayoral candidate, as the City Council speaker sat down on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” Thursday night. Eric Adams is “preoccupied” and “it is trickling down into the lives of New Yorkers right now,” Adrienne Adams said. She never planned to run for mayor, but “City Hall has been shaken.” Sexual misconduct should be “not a thing that we carry into the future, but something that we look upon the past not to repeat,” the speaker added. Expect the scandal-free grandmother to keep drawing a contrast to the men in the race. Meanwhile the candidates that have been running for months kept running, but with fresh tanks of gas. 10 a.m.: Stringer was in City Hall Park, saying Cuomo should’ve run for Westchester County Executive, given that he’s lived outside the city for two decades. 10:30 a.m.: Zellnor Myrie stood one block away on Spruce Street, pitching an after school plan (More on that below). 11 a.m.: Brad Lander gathered reporters a minute away outside the Municipal Building, talking up his housing plan — and ridiculing Cuomo’s record in that realm. 6 p.m.: Later on, that trio — plus Zohran Mamdani, Jessica Ramos and Michael Blake — attended a mayoral forum on environmental issues. The challengers have sat together in similar confabs for months, night after night, but haven’t yet been joined by Eric Adams, Adrienne Adams or Cuomo. “Andrew, thank you for joining us,” Stringer joked, gesturing at an empty chair. The mayor kept up his non-campaign strategy too. That is to say, he made a government announcement about fighting crime around Washington Square Park. Questions loom about what Eric Adams’ actual campaign will look like, if one ever forms, as POLITICO reported last week. But the mayor insisted, again, that he’s running for reelection. “The only game you are guaranteed to lose is the game you forfeit by getting out of the game,” he said. “The worst thing I can do is surrender to a lie and I will never do that.” — Jeff Coltin HAPPY FRIDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE’S KATHY? In Albany with no public schedule. WHERE’S ERIC? In New York City, meeting with the “Jewish News Syndicate” and later speaking at Reverend Carolina’s 20th pastoral anniversary celebration. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “They clearly are not ready to give up the fight they had with Cuomo in the past.” — Strategist Stu Loeser in Breaker’s story about the New York Post’s problem with the ex-Gov: “He's running for mayor and it hates him.”
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