Ex-NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer eyes 2025 comeback bid challenging Eric Adams for mayor

Former city Comptroller Scott Stringer is eyeing a second run for mayor in a potential comeback bid challenging Mayor Eric Adams.

Stringer said he’s opening an exploratory committee that could see him on the ballot next to the incumbent in the 2025 Democratic primary.

The ex-comptroller lost to Adams in the 2021 Democratic primary after his campaign crumbled when a former campaign volunteer accused him of sexual assault two decades prior.

Stringer denied the accusation and has since sued him for abuse under the Adult Survivors Act last year.

“I’m setting up an exploratory committee to run for mayor,” Stringer, 63, told The Post Wednesday.

“This administration is steering the ship into the iceberg. We need to move the ship away from the iceberg,” he said.

He claims Adams’ tenure, now at its midpoint, has been a disappointment.

“Crime is up. Housing is down. Education is flat,” Stringer said.

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Adams, however, has boasted that crime fell last year in five of seven categories including murders and shootings.

The percentage of students who cleared proficiency on the state math exam also increased 11 points last year, while the percentage of kids passing English language arts was up 3 points.

But the recent exams were based on new standards, so the results weren’t directly comparable with the prior year’s tests.

Adams’ approval rating dropped to a meager 28% in a Quinnipiac poll released last month — which is the lowest ever recorded for a New York City mayor by the university since it began querying Big Apple voters a quarter-century ago.

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The mayor has been grappling with a migrant crisis, budget woes, and a serious FBI probe into his 2021 campaign. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in the federal probe but has raised $725,000 for a legal defense fund.

Stringer was the city comptroller from 2014 to 2021 and previously served as Manhattan borough president and a state assemblyman representing the Upper West Side.

He was elected comptroller in 2013, defeating Eliot Spitzer, who attempted a comeback after resigning as governor in a prostitution scandal.

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Stringer is not the only New York pol trying to rise from the ashes of career-damning scandals.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned under the threat of impeachment in 2021 amid accusations of sexual misconduct, also has not ruled out another bid for public office. He has similarly denied wrongdoing.

Stringer initially ducked from taking a position on a controversial bill passed by the Council that would require cops to file reports on virtually every street encounter. Adams is expected to veto the bill on Friday.

“I’ll get back to you on that,” Stringer told The Post Thursday.

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Some campaign vets were skeptical of a Stringer revival, at least for mayor, despite Adams’ current unpopularity.

“Eric may be challenged if his approval is in the 20’s, but it’s hard to see how someone who lost badly last time and ran on cutting the NYPD is going to be the one to do it,” said  Chris Coffey of Tusk Strategies, who worked on Andrew Yang’s 2021 campaign for mayor.

“But I’ve been around campaigns enough to know that you never know.”

Some labor leaders and elected officials made clear Thursday they’re sticking with Adams.

“Eric Adams has led us through multiple crises as mayor and brought the city back. Where has Scott Stringer been that entire time?,” asked Kyle Bragg, former head of Local 32 BJ.