By Gersh KuntzmanThe Brooklyn Paper
This just in: State Sen. Eric Adams has not — repeat, has not! — endorsed anyone for president yet. Whew, that was close!
We don’t usually get press releases from politicians telling us when they haven’t done something, so Adams’s e-mail last week definitely caught our eye.
“At the present time, I have not endorsed any Democratic candidate running for the office of President of the United States, nor am I a member of any group or coalition that has made such an endorsement,” the first-term lawmaker said in a statement that was so cryptic, so bass-ackwards that it simply had to win The Brooklyn Paper’s “press release of the week” award.
Adams accepted our award, but said he simply had to issue the statement because of a “story in the New York Post that said I had endorsed [Illinois Sen.] Barack Obama.”
“I had to send out the release to set the record straight,” Adams (D–Prospect Heights) told The Brooklyn Paper.
That said, Adams admitted that he had nothing against Obama, but simply that he hadn’t “heard” from the candidates so that he could not render his coveted endorsement.
“I called Sen. Clinton and she called me back, but we missed each other. And we’re talking to Barack Obama’s camp. And also John Edwards.”
We? What’s with the “we,” Kemo Sabe? “When I say ‘we,’ I mean myself, [Rep.] Yvette Clarke, [Assemblyman] Hakeem Jeffries and [Assemblyman] Karim Camara,” Adams said. “We represent a broad Democratic population here in Brooklyn and want the candidates to address our issues.”
Adams said his “bloc” would endorse someone within two months. Will anyone care?
“Yes. True, I’m a state Senator with no national name recognition, but Tip O’Neill said all politics is local.” (Perhaps, but not in a press release.)
