Former Gov. David Paterson is backing a new horse in the crowded field for New York City mayor — putting his support behind Eric Adams’ bid to hang onto City Hall.
The 55th governor of New York became the highest-profile Democrat to back the incumbent’s re-election bid, after previously endorsing his successor in Albany, Andrew Cuomo, in the June Democratic primary for mayor.
“I’m here to stand for someone who has already run this city for nearly four years and has made huge changes over the past administrations,” Paterson said outside City Hall Wednesday, surrounded by more than two dozen Adams supporters.
“At this particular time, in this moment where so many issues are occurring, so many difficulties are coming to this state … the person we need to protect us is Mayor Eric Adams,” he said.
The endorsement comes just weeks after Paterson called for the candidates — GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa and independents Adams, Cuomo and lawyer Jim Walden — to unite behind one person as the best way to beat the frontrunner, socialist Zohran Mamdani, in the November election.
Under the proposal, the contender who continues to campaign would be determined by an independent poll closer to the election or by leaders across Big Apple institutions.
But Paterson said Wednesday he was dropping the idea, which Cuomo had publicly endorsed.
“It was an idea to generate conversation. None of the candidates seemed particularly interested, so I considered the issue to be mute,” he said.
Cuomo has maintained his runner-up status behind Mamdani in a handful of polls over the last month, while Adams has been struggling to muster double-digit support, putting him in fourth place.
Paterson has repeatedly spoken out against Mamdani, who shocked the political world when he won the Democratic nomination and gave Cuomo an electoral shellacking in the primary.
“It would kind of be like comparing a lit match to a forest fire,” Paterson said Wednesday, when asked why he was supporting Adams over the party’s nominee.
“Mr. Mamdani has proposed some very interesting concepts and idea. The problem is that he can’t really solve them unless he has the resources. And he never really discusses where he’s going to get the resources from,” Paterson said.
He compared the Queens assemblyman to lefty Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose popularity has dipped as the Windy City’s budget woes worsen.
“We don’t want to go through that. We don’t want to have these situations where the government is falling apart and there’s no leadership and nobody know what to do,” Paterson said.
The endorsement is the latest shift for Paterson, who also worked Walden early on in the lawyer’s independent campaign for mayor.
Veteran political operative Bill Cunningham predicted that having the backing of Paterson — the state’s first black governor who served from 2008 to 2010 — will help Adams and take a bite out of Cuomo’s chances of winning the race.
“It will make a difference for Cuomo. His strategy rests on being the choice of moderate to liberal elderly voters of color,” Cunningham told The Post.
“David’s endorsement of Adams is like the iceberg cutting a slit at the Titanic’s waterline,” he said, “and it may help Mamdani for the same reason.
“The questions for Adams’ team is how can they use it to best advantage given his money problems.”
Meanwhile Sliwa, who has a longtime personal and professional relationship with Paterson, thanked the ex-gov for not backing him — calling an endorsement from him the political “kiss of death.”
“I have political vertigo from my husband-in-law David Paterson,” Sliwa told Politico. “You went from Adams to Jim Walden to Cuomo, now you are back to Adams. Stay away from me. Say bad things about me! But please don’t endorse me.”
When asked about Sliwa’s comments, Paterson fired back.
“Curtis Sliwa is a kiss of death.”
