It's Up to You New York, New York

Musical Interlude
In desperation, New York Mayor Eric Adams has declared that he will run for reelection as an independent, because he is so f%$#ing toxic that f%$#ing Andrew "Rat Faced Andy" is f%$#ing out-polling him in the primary race.

Mayor Eric Adams declared Thursday he will be skipping the Democratic primary in June and running for reelection as an independent candidate in November.

The announcement came just hours after the federal corruption case against the mayor was permanently dismissed . In a brief video announcing the decision, the mayor said the case made it impossible to mount a run in the June primary.

Adams realizes that his electoral goose is cooked, so he will be running as an independent.

Not a surprise, he is corrupt, self-important to the point of being delusional, and just f%$#ing embarrassing.

FWIW, the New York City primary elections use ranked choice voting, (RCV) so I don't see Cuomo winning the primary, because of the way that RCV works:  People rank their candidates from 1st to 5th choice, and on the first round, everyone's 1st choice is counted, and the low vote getter is removed, and that voter's 2nd choice votes are counted.

This procedure continues until a candidate has an absolute majority of the vote, typically when there are only 2 or three candidates remaining. 

I don't see Rat Faced Andy Cuomo ever reaching 50%, no matter how much money he raises.  In no particular order:

• He is seen as a vindictive bully, and no one who has ever been one of his victims wants him to have power ever again.
• He killed thousands in nursing homes and covered it up during the height of the Covid pandemic.
• His hostility towards New York City as Governor.
• Sexually harassing staff. 
• Surrounding himself with corrupt people, and when the commission that he created to fight corruption started getting too close, he shut it down.
• His collusion with Republicans in the State Senate to prevent a Democratic takeover of that body.

There are about 9 candidates competing in the Democratic primary, it's complicated, and I imagine that one of the other 8 will get the party nod.

If this were first past the post, my money would be on Cuomo, but not now.

BTW, as we are talking about the now dismissed corruption charges against Mayor Adams, here are the details.

Adams was guilty as hell, and the Trump administration tried to have the charges dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they could refile at any time, and so use this as a way to coerce the Mayor to do their bidding.  The judge was having none of this, and dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning that double jeopardy applies, and so the prosecutors cannot refile charges:

………

This is one of the small victories, even if it — at first glance — it appears to be a win for the Trump Administration. The indictment against NYC Mayor Eric Adams — stemming from a corruption case that managed to ensnare pretty much all of his closest government confidants — has been dismissed by Judge Dale Ho.

This dismissal event was highly controversial. Once Trump took office, he directed the DOJ to dismiss the case against the mayor. This immediately prompted the resignation of the DOJ prosecutors who had brought the criminal charges. Trump’s preferred DOJ officials publicly pilloried the prosecutors that chose to walk, rather than undermine their ethics. Then Trump’s careerist prosecutors took over, raising a litany of bad faith arguments as to why Eric Adams should be allowed to walk.

Trump wanted Adams to walk, but only while being manipulated by puppet strings. Trump wanted to ensure the mayor would go all in on his anti-immigrant efforts and figured being given a free pass on criminal charges might purchase enough loyalty to get him through the next four years.

So, it might seem that dismissing the charges with prejudice would just be another example of a court failing to act as a check on executive power. But Judge Dale Ho’s dismissal [PDF] makes it clear he’s unhappy with Trump’s DOJ. More than that, this dismissal ensures Adams can’t be prosecuted for these charges, even if the mayor decides he’s not going to be Trump’s puppet.

Trump’s DOJ wants to have both the carrot and the stick. Judge Ho says the court will allow the carrot, but will be confiscating the stick. Here’s how that’s explained in the opening of Ho’s comprehensive, 78-page dismissal:

A critical feature of DOJ’s Motion is that it seeks dismissal without prejudice—that is, DOJ seeks to abandon its prosecution of Mayor Adams at this time, while reserving the right to reinitiate the case in the future. DOJ does not seek to end this case once and for all. Rather, its request, if granted, would leave Mayor Adams under the specter of reindictment at essentially any time, and for essentially any reason.

The Court declines, in its limited discretion under Rule 48(a), to endorse that outcome. Instead, it dismisses this case with prejudice—meaning that the Government may not bring the charges in the Indictment against Mayor Adams in the future. In light of DOJ’s rationales, dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the Mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents. That appearance is inevitable, and it counsels in favor of dismissal with prejudice.

Now, the DOJ is stuck with its politically opportunistic dismissal. If Mayor Adams decides to push back against Trump (however unlikely that is), he has nothing to fear from Trump’s DOJ. At best, they’d have to start over from scratch and find some other set of criminal charges to levy against Adams for his disobedience.

I feel compelled to invoke Anatole France, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."

The dismissal is an unequivocal win for Mayor Adams, but it is a loss for Trump and his Evil Minions™.

Needless to say, June 24 in New York City,  primary day, is going to be very interesting.