Adams May Get His Charges Dropped, but His Re-election Fight Remains

With the criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams now imperiled, his chances of re-election this year certainly seems poised to receive a boost.

But whether it would be enough to overcome his flagging poll numbers — recent surveys suggested that he was favored by less than 10 percent of respondents — was far less certain.

The fact that a potential dismissal would come at the hands of President Trump, who is wildly unpopular among New York City Democrats, may also diminish some of the benefits of no longer facing a five-count federal indictment.

Mr. Adams’s relentless currying of favor with Mr. Trump, both before his re-election and after, has given ample ammunition to the mayor’s challengers, who have argued that Mr. Adams put his own interests ahead of the city’s.

Still, with the Justice Department pressuring federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop the indictment against the mayor, just weeks after they said they had uncovered “additional criminal conduct” by him, Mr. Adams may be freed from the prospect of having to sit through a heavily publicized April trial, only two months before the primary.

It was also unclear whether the request to drop Mr. Adams’s case might affect whether former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo enters the mayor’s race. Mr. Cuomo, who regularly leads mayoral polls even though he has not declared his candidacy, has typically drawn strong support from Black voters, placing him in direct competition with Mr. Adams.

More than a half-dozen candidates have entered the race. They include Brad Lander, the city comptroller; State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani; State Senator Zellnor Myrie; State Senator Jessica Ramos; and Scott Stringer, the former city comptroller. All are considered to the left of Mr. Adams.

Two other candidates are running as moderates: Jim Walden, a lawyer who is suing to run on the Independence Party ballot line, and Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund executive.