ALBANY, New York — All eyes are now on Gov. Kathy Hochul as she weighs whether to remove New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office in the wake of the indictment against him, the Justice Department moving to drop those charges and Adams’ subsequent steps to collaborate with the Trump administration on migrant policy.
The governor has significant powers to remove local officials. But governors have rarely employed those powers in modern history. None have launched removal proceedings since Gov. Malcolm Wilson did after Schoharie County Sheriff John Goldswer forced inmates to work on a construction project at his house in 1974; no official has actually been removed since a series of investigations into Tammany Hall in 1932.
There’s little modern precedent for how an ouster of Adams would work in practice. But removals from the early 20th century provide a guide for what it might wind up looking like…