Jumaane Williams is poised to pick up Eric Adams' pieces

As New York City is rocked by allegations of corruption emanating from Gracie Mansion, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is waiting in the wings as next in line to take over the mayorship.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
Who is Jumaane Williams, the man within striking distance of the New York City mayorship?
(Image credit: Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)

After months, if not years, of swirling rumors and strident denials, federal prosecutors last week brought the legal hammer down on New York City Mayor Eric Adams, accusing hizzoner of extensive public corruption stretching back at least a decade. Under growing pressure to resign, Adams has strenuously professed his innocence in the lead-up to last week's federal indictment. After vowing to fight the charges with "every ounce of my strength, and my spirit," Adams pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Friday, urging New Yorkers to "wait to hear our defense."

Despite Adams' predictions of exoneration and redemption, there remains a very real chance that the first-term mayor will not complete his time in office before the mayoral election scheduled for next November. With that looming possibility in mind, control of the largest city in the country will fall to Jumaane Williams, New York's public advocate since 2019. As second in New York's line of succession, public advocate is not only a non-voting member of the city council, but serves as "ombudsman for city government, providing oversight for city agencies, investigating citizens' complaints about city services and making proposals to address perceived shortcomings or failures of those services," said NYC.gov. Should Williams replace Adams mid-term, his mayoral powers would be truncated, and he would be required to hold a special election for the position within 80 days.

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.