More than seven out of ten city residents believe Mayor Adams “did something wrong” in his dealings with Turkey during his 2021 mayoral run, according to a new Maris poll released Tuesday.
The poll found 72% of city residents think Adams did something untoward in connection with Turkey and that Adams’ job approval rating has dived to 54% New Yorkers now disapproving of his performance, with only 37% approving.
The new results mark a steep decline in public opinion for the mayor. In a separate March 2022 poll, 61% of people who responded to that survey approved of Adams’ performance while 24% disapproved.
The new survey comes as Adams, his 2021 campaign and top administration officials continue to field a barrage of questions about the federal probe focused on his campaign and whether donations to it came from the Turkish government through illegal straw donors.
In response to that, Adams has set up a legal defense fund, a venture he said Tuesday is based, in part, on the outpouring of support he’s received since news of the probe became public.
“New Yorkers reached out to me, and they asked, ‘Eric, how can we help?’ And they wanted to donate to my campaign account,” he said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Adams said that since providing legal defense donations to a campaign is a no-no, his team created a separate legal fund. He also pointed out that his predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio is still on the hook for his own legal costs.
“We saw what happened with the former mayor,” he said. “It was almost $1 million in legal fees he had.”
The new polling numbers out Tuesday aren’t just bad for Adams. They also don’t bode well for Gov. Hochul. The Marist survey found a majority of residents statewide, including at least four in ten Democrats, don’t think she’s “changing Albany for the better.” And six out of ten respondents reported that Hochul is doing “only a fair or poor job.”
“There’s no good news for New York’s major officials,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Governor Hochul’s standing has deteriorated in the state, Mayor Adams faces a more negative constituency, and Representative Santos has hit rock bottom.”
Santos, who is facing expulsion from Congress, should resign from his post, according to 75% of New Yorkers who responded to the poll.
