If at first you don’t succeed…
Mayor Eric Adams is try-trying again to court Big Apple Republicans into supporting his re-election bid — banking on growing fears over socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani’s surging campaign, The Post has learned.
Sources said the mayor himself as well as his allies have been making calls to GOP bigwigs with a pitch to either ditch their beret-wearing mayoral contender Curtis Sliwa and put Adams on their coveted party line — or publicly back his independent run.
“The Adams campaign is a slapped together group of people who may not like each other but fear a Mamdani mayorship,” said a source with knowledge of the moderate Democrat’s entreaties across the aisle.
“Adams is doing a political Rorschach Test saying, ‘If you don’t help me you’re going to be dead.’”
Hizzoner has been personally calling individual county Republican leaders, who have privately voiced support for the incumbent, to gauge whether they’d back him over their presumptive mayoral nominee Sliwa — a potentially tricky prospect.
“It’s a smart move, he needs to get them away from Curtis,” a political insider said.
The source noted that Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder, likely won’t beat the Democratic primary winner — be it frontrunner Andrew Cuomo or Mamdani, who now is within striking distance of the ex-gov, according to the latest polling.
If Adams gets the support of local GOP bigwigs, “He’ll have a more united front” — made up of a bipartisan coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans the operative said.
“It’s a winning strategy.”
The talks also signal concern in Adams’ camp that his run on two independent party lines is doomed.
Adams previously came up empty when he explored the move back in February as a political Hail Mary, that The Post revealed, in case he lost the Democratic primary — a likely outcome, given his growing political alliance with President Trump and controversial dismissal of his federal corruption case.
But Republicans rebuffed the mayor and consolidated support behind Sliwa, their 2021 candidate who handily lost to Adams.
Sources said Adams knows he likely won’t gain the actual GOP nomination, but can cobble together a coalition of conservative and moderate power players to back him based on their shared fear of Mamdani becoming mayor.
One source said Adams even believes that if Mamdani beats Cuomo in the June 24 primary, it’ll help his re-election bid in November’s general election, giving him a path forward to go up against the polarizing lefty candidate.
Adams campaign spokesman Todd Shapiro didn’t deny that the mayor is making overtures to Republicans.
“Mayor Adams is running as an independent leader for all New Yorkers—and that means he’s being supported by both Democrats and Republicans who care about results, not rhetoric,” Shapiro said in a statement.
“This election is about leadership, not labels. If the mayor were to enter a primary, he would draw thousands of Republicans and Democrats, just like he did the first time—because people vote for results, not party politics.”
A chippy Sliwa, when asked about Adams’ renewed GOP overtures and attempt to bigfoot onto the Republican party line, vowed he’s “not going anywhere.”
“Eric Adams had his shot to get into a primary and backed down because he knew he would get crushed by me,” Sliwa boasted. “Now he is a man with no party, scrambling to stay relevant with a last ditch effort that is as pathetic as it is desperate.”
Dislodging Sliwa — who has the support of all five GOP county chairs — would also be a tall order under an obscure New York election law going back to the 1940s known as “Wilson Pakula” that aims to stop party jumping.
The only way under the law for Adams to pull a switcheroo with Sliwa will be for the red beret-wearing Guardian Angels founder to die, be named a judge or move out of New York City — in addition to gaining the backing of Republican county chairs.
Insiders said the GOP leaders all like Adams — who was a registered Republican from 1997 to 2001 before switching back to the Democrats — but don’t see Sliwa going along with any swap, barring an act from Trump.
“Trump would have to line up a job for Curtis,” one source said.
Adams has maintained he’s still a Democrat, albeit one ditched by the leftward turn of his party.
Adams also has continued to cozy up to Trump, including this week as he followed in the cryptocurrency-friendly, golf-loving president’s footsteps by attending a Las Vegas crypto conference and name-dropping the vice president.
“In my conclusion, Vice President Vance said something that you should all listen to, we must be part of the political strength in our country,” Adams told the crowd
“In golf, they say you drive for show but you putt for dough,” he added, stumbling over the golf reference.
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