(Bloomberg) -- An overwhelming number of New Yorkers want Eric Adams to step down after he became the first sitting mayor in the city’s modern history to be indicted on corruption charges.
Sixty-nine percent of New York City residents surveyed, including 71% of Democrats, said the first-term mayor should leave office, according to a Marist Poll published Friday. If Adams doesn’t resign, 63% of residents said Governor Kathy Hochul should begin the process of forcibly removing him, the poll found.
“It’s hard to imagine how Mayor Adams could be faring any worse in the court of public opinion,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors last week charged Adams with bribery, conspiracy and breaking campaign finance laws. The former police captain is accused of secretly accepting illegal contributions to his 2021 campaign and of taking free flight and hotel upgrades and other gifts without disclosing them as required. And he may face more counts soon, prosecutors said this week.
The poll found only 26% of residents approve of the way Adams is handling his job, with 74% saying they disapprove. But Adams’ approval rating was suffering even before the indictment, as federal investigations into his inner circle became public and he grappled with issues related to the more than 200,000 migrants who have arrived in the city in the past two years.
The Marist Poll surveyed 1,073 adults over age 18 residing in New York City online and via text on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
--With assistance from Laura Nahmias.
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