What will NYC Mayor Eric Adams' legacy be after suspending his reelection bid?
Eric Adams' time as New York City mayor will officially end when 2026 arrives and a successor is sworn in, sparking a debate about what his legacy will be and if there was more to the decision.
Adams stopped bidding for a second term amid a tumultuous mayoralty, in which he was accused of federal corruption crimes, a case that was later dropped, and challengers who were consistently polling ahead of him.
Was Adams' decision inevitable?
The mayor officially suspended his reelection campaign on Sept. 28, clearing the way for either Democratic Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, independent former Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Republican Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa to win the election.
Even with some policy wins under his belt to campaign on, the mayor's decision to leave the race seemed inevitable, "Politico" reporter Jeff Coltin said Sunday on CBS News New York's "The Point with Marcia Kramer."
"Merely a month ago, he stood before all of us reporters at Gracie Mansion and he said, 'Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar,' and, 'I am in this to win this' and 'I'm the one that can beat Mamdani.' The next day, my colleagues and I wrote a story saying that nobody believes Eric Adams, that we all still think that there's a chance that he was going to suspend his campaign," Coltin said.
But there could be more forces at play.
"Was it just that he saw no path to victory or is there something else still to come?" Ben Max, program director at New York Law School's Center for New York City and State Law and host of the "Max Politics" podcast, told "The Point."
"We know from [Coltin's] reporting and elsewhere that there's been different things dangled towards him," he said.
Sources told CBS News New York the Trump administration was looking for ways to persuade Adams to leave the race before he dropped out. There was speculation Adams could become the White House's ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Adams at the time called the reports just rumors.
What's the legacy of a one-term mayor?
Max predicts Adams' legacy will be dominated by the corruption allegations against him and members of his administration, overshadowing any wins he had in City Hall.
"It will be a mixed bag. Cronyism, corruption, questions about ethics and focus, and then a whole bunch of policy achievements that even his critics give him some credit for," Max said. "He's done well on housing policy and literacy in schools and a few other things."
Coltin said Adams' "City of Yes" rezoning plan may prove to be his greatest achievement, noting both the Mamdani and Cuomo campaigns have embraced building more homes.
"Housing, in particular, is one that Adams is really hanging his hat on," Coltin said. "It's a lot of stuff that will happen. He expects that there will be a lot of housing built that was started under [his] administration."
Adams' leadership in the migrant crisis may also weigh heavily on his legacy.
"This was the big crisis of his term," Max said. "There were a lot of logistical successes ... but it was another example where his leadership faltered repeatedly."
"The actual policy, the actual work that his administration did of emergency housing for something like 250,000 people, I mean, Adams is furious that he's not getting more credit for that," Coltin said.
"The Eric Adams legacy will be he appointed a bunch of people that were professional and did a lot of good work, and that he appointed a bunch of people who he should not have brought into his administration," Max added.
Coltin said mayors tend to be remembered more fondly years after they leave office, noting Michael Bloomberg, who won as a Republican and independent, had "a lot of haters when he was mayor," but now gets some favorable reviews from liberal voters.
"I think Eric Adams, right now, historically unpopular mayor," he said. "I think with time, that will only go up."