NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has her eyes on Albany if her longshot mayoral bid fails, The Post has learned.
Adams is on Governor Hochul’s shortlist for the position of lieutenant governor and is currently working to enhance her popularity by opening a fourth Council office using taxpayer funds, according to several Albany insiders and City Hall sources.
“The governor is looking for someone like Adrienne who could generate votes downstate and align her with political naysayers,” said one insider.
Next year, Hochul will contend in the Democratic primary against her current lieutenant, Antonio Delgado, with whom she has a strained relationship. Sources indicate that Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is also being considered as a potential running mate for the governor from Buffalo.
Governor Hochul is particularly focused on increasing her appeal in Queens and hopes that selecting either Adams or Richards will help her connect with the party’s far-left supporters and minority voters, whom Delgado is also targeting, according to sources.
Richards is currently her “No. 1 choice” and Adams “1A” – but that could change especially since Hochul wants to keep state Attorney General Letitia James an ally, and James is Adams’ biggest booster in the NYC mayoral race, the insider said.
Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic consultant, said a Hochul-Adams pairing makes perfect sense because “having a black woman from southeast Queens” like Adams on the ticket “would be helpful” for the governor’s re-election bid.
He also said the speaker will likely soon need another option when her final term on the Council expires at year’s end, because she’s a huge underdog in the mayoral race heading into the June 24 primary.
The news of Hochul’s interest in Adams potentially sheds light on why the speaker is planning to open yet another office despite being term-limited
The new digs are at newly renovated storefront at 122-21 111th Ave in South Ozone Park, less than three miles from her other Queens district office at the Rochdale Village Shopping Center in Jamaica.
Adams has yet to announce its grand opening, but she posted a flyer on social media this week noting a mobile unit from the New York Legal Assistance Group would be parked outside the 111th Avenue address from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to provide free legal services.
The office was shuttered Thursday when a reporter visited, but residents who live nearby said they are well aware the speaker is moving in soon.
The storefront’s exterior has undergone a complete overhaul with nine security cameras and security lighting installed near the main entrance, which was locked by newly installed roll-down metal gates.
It’s unclear how much the renovations cost and what the rental payments are, but the building’s landlord Suresh Rassbeharry told The Post he provided some of the upgrades per their lease agreement and Adams “picked up the other costs” including the security features.
Adams is already under fire from critics over a Post report in April exposing how she green-lit hundreds of thousands of dollars in top-to-bottom renovations for her main digs in City Hall, a suite of offices across the street at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, and to move her Jamaica district office.
It is unclear what pile of taxpayer cash paid for the previous decorating — or for the new office.
The City Council by law sets its own expense budget, which historically operates like a shell game. Pots of money are moved from one line item to another on a whim after the yearly spending plan is adopted — and many of these revisions are rarely accounted for or updated in public records, according to council members and other City Hall sources.
Hochul’s campaign, Adams’ campaign and Richards declined comment.
Councilman Robert Holden (R-Queens) said Adams’ latest office splurge is head-scratching.
“The speaker will be out of office in less than six months and she will not be mayor, so it makes no sense for her to open another district office at taxpayer expense — unless she is planning her next move to keep cashing in — but either way, it makes no sense,” he said.
