#Eric Adams praises Kathy Hochul as right person for the moment

Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams praised Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul as a “professional” who will lead the state with a “steady hand” after Andrew Cuomo leaves office in the wake of multiple scandals.

“She’s a professional,” Adams told reporters Wednesday after an event at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.

“A steady hand is what we need right now when you turn over the state to an individual, you need someone with a steady hand. She has a steady hand, and I believe that she’s going to be able to navigate the challenges that we’re having and then voters will decide what’s going to happen in the future,” Adams said.

Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, reached out to Hochul Tuesday shortly after Cuomo announced he’d be stepping down.

“I called her and said, ‘Hey lieutenant governor, soon-to-be governor, there’s some very important items on the agenda — COVID, crime,’” Adams recounted.

“It’s not a new relationship, I’ve known Kathy, the lieutenant governor for some time and we just want to continue to communicate,” Adams said.

“‘She said, ‘Eric, I appreciate that a lot. Let’s do that,’” Adams recalled of the phone call.

He plans to meet with Hochul in the coming days to encourage her to sign a bill that would allow outer borough hotels to be used for mental health and homelessness services.

“That’s an important piece of legislation and I’m hoping that we can get some of the things that are on his desk signed during the next period of time,” Adams said.

He also gave a brief post mortem on Cuomo’s ten-year governorship.

“He had good points, he had bad points,” Adams said. On the plus side, Adams listed Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, passing same sex marriage and gun control laws.

But he dinged Cuomo on inadequate education funding for the city, affordable housing missteps and a lack of focus on handguns.

Finally Adams turned to his own political future.

“I am fueling the plane while I’m flying,” said Adams, who is heavily favored to win the general election in November.

“We have some huge items on our plate so I am moving around the city speaking with smart people who are willing to help and taking notes, taking names so that we will be ready to hit the ground running on day one,” he said. “So, we’re not being presumptuous, we’re being prepared.”

“In a few weeks we’re going to be announcing who is going to be our coordinating chair of this pseudo transition team,” he said.