Charges Dropped Against Adams, but Re-Election Chances Remain Dim

Even with the dismissal of a five-count federal corruption indictment, Mayor Eric Adams faces an uncertain future.

Mayor Eric Adams got his best case scenario on Wednesday, when Judge Dale E. Ho dismissed his federal corruption indictment.

In the stroke of a pen, the prospect of a trial-turned-media circus had been eliminated, along with the prospect of prison time. And because the indictment was dismissed with prejudice, prosecutors can no longer revisit the charges after the November mayoral election.

But that does not mean Mr. Adams’s path to winning a second term this year will be any easier.

In the roughly six months since a grand jury indicted him, Mr. Adams has seen his fund-raising crater and a platoon of contenders join the Democratic primary, including several who are well-positioned to win the support of Black voters outside Manhattan who make up Mr. Adams’s base.

Despite the headwinds and the absence of a discernible campaign infrastructure, Mr. Adams insists that he is still running for a second term. He has also left open the door to running as an independent, possibly forgoing a bruising Democratic primary battle in June and enabling him to build up and conserve his campaign funds for the general election.

And even though his case has been dismissed, how it played out did him no favors with voters. Mr. Adams has had to watch as the Trump administration’s effort to quash his case devolved into a sordid soap opera, with respected federal prosecutors in Manhattan forfeiting their jobs rather than carry out orders that they considered corrupt.