ended his campaign for reelection<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nRay is hoping that the book will change the tide of his future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all make mistakes, and we are all, hopefully, given a chance to course correct,” she told NY1.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t understand what Eric has done to make the city want to turn their back on him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Ray, the mayor running for a second term is personal. She first met Adams in March 2014 at a basketball game.<\/p>\n
They immediately connected and by mid-2015 were romantically involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But then in October 2016, Adams had his sights set on Gracie Mansion and abruptly ended things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very shocking and very sad,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to protect you from my life. I am doing this thing, and I am distracted by our friendship,” Ray continued.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until the fall of 2021, after Adams won the Democratic primary, that they would speak again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor wanted Ray back on his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In December 2022, she became the director of the newly created Mayor\u2019s Office of Sports, Wellness and Recreation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ray held the $161,000-a-year job until last month when she resigned.<\/p>\n
On whether she got the job on merit or connections, she told NY1,\u00a0\u201cI think just like any human being, when you get a job or when you have a position of influence, the first thing that I would naturally think of is who do I know in my mental network that can occupy this position. Somebody [who] is trustworthy. Somebody [who] knows the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that anybody who knew me knows I’m there because I know the work and nobody can dispute that,” she continued.<\/p>\n
Less than two years into her post, Ray found herself in the eye of a storm when the mayor came under federal investigation. Her closeness to the mayor left her exposed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ray says she was subpoenaed four times and sat on the grand jury multiple times. At one point, she said she became the star witness in the now-dropped federal corruption case against the mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mother of two says she would\u2019ve testified but doesn\u2019t believe the federal investigators presented a strong case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s tacky. If you did this thing, just apologize to New York. I think New York is going to be like, ‘OK, he asked for airplane upgrades.’ Who wouldn\u2019t? I would,” Ray said.<\/p>\n
The mayor’s office last month confirmed that the two had a relationship, but 10 years ago, not while Adams’ was in office.<\/p>\n
Ray says the book is about placing Adams in a new light and giving him a chance at redemption.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll get the truth behind what happened with this man. What he really cares about and who he really is. And I think we need to take a second look at him,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She loved the mayor in secret for years and even worked for him briefly. Now she\u2019s ready to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":282859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,7448,86109,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,43431,5227,80,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-282858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-kelly-mena","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115330139039339606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}