Zohran Mamdani's Going to Have a Hard Time Escaping the Trap Eric Adams Set on His Way Out

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is having a hard time with a “legal booby trap” former Mayor Eric Adams left behind just before leaving office.

On his way out, Adams created a new Charter Revision Commission and appointed its members. He then instructed the entity to explore moving New York City to nonpartisan elections, according to Politico.

Hours before Adams left office on Dec. 31, the lame-duck mayor established a legally protected commission packed predominantly with loyalists and tasked with exploring a ballot question about open primaries, a proposed change in the city’s electoral machinery that, if implemented, would make it more difficult for Mamdani, a democratic socialist, to win a second term.
In the weeks since, the question of how to undo — or at the very least blunt — the impact of Adams’ zombie commission has attracted the attention of the city’s likely next corporation counsel, spawned a bill in Albany that would allow Mamdani to disband the outfit and spurred government ethics experts to explore how Adams’ creation might be reconciled to the history books as just another quirk of his tragic turn as city executive.
“This sets up a mayoral institution that is potentially in conflict with the sitting mayor, and that strikes me as very unwise and petty,” said Richard Briffault, a government expert at Columbia Law School and former chair of the city Conflicts of Interest Board. “This is purely hostile.”

Steven Banks, Mayor Mamdani's corp counsel pick, has spent weeks looking into how to neutralize the controversial Charter Revision Commission Eric Adams launched on his last day in office, @joeanuta reports.

One apparent option: Starve it of resources.https://t.co/NV8EaPi3Qp
— Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) January 27, 2026

The commission will hold hearings, take public input, and place charter amendments on the ballot for New York City voters to approve or reject. Other commissions of this type have made significant changes to the city’s charter over the years. It created the modern City Council, changed term limits, and altered land-use processes.

What makes this even worse for Mamdani is that he cannot disband the commission until it gets the proposals on the ballot or reaches the end of its two-year term. During this period, the City Council cannot place its own charter question on the ballot, meaning the new mayor can’t run their own competing ballot measure.

However, Mamdani is not completely out of options. He can also block funding to the commission or attempt legal challenges against it.

Mamdani’s team slammed the move as an effort to subvert the will of the voters who just elected him. Dora Pekec, a Mamdani spokesperson, called the commission “yet another ploy from the Adams administration to circumvent the voice of New Yorkers who elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor” and that his team is reviewing “all available options.”

The reason Mamdani and his team are freaking out over this is because if the ballot measure succeeds, it would create a system in which all candidates run together, with the top two winners advancing to the general election. These systems tend to favor candidates who appeal to the broadest swath of voters, which means it is more likely that a moderate would win out over an extreme ideologue who thrive in closed party primaries.

In a city like New York, it could dampen the ability of a democratic socialist like Mamdani to attain power.

If New York City voters approve the ballot measure, it would certainly shake up the city’s political scene. We can expect to see an aggressive fight over this issue over the next two years

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