. He only switched to Republican when it was of tactical benefit within NY state politics and everyone involved (i.e., public worker unions, big real estate money) gets that, gives it a mulligan. Doing the type of switching that Adams did in the state's politics is just seen as being very savvy, as in: a dangerous but savvy player of the machine. You really are dealing with a Tammany Hall type situation in NY state, it's not the same division of Dem vs. GOP as elsewhere in the country, it's not so much about ideology is the thing, it's more "pay to play" and fighting over financial constituencies, not ideological ones (heck even the Hasidic Jews basically do the "pay to play" thing, very cynical voting deliverance by the rebbes-i.e., you scratch our back, we'll scratch yours, what they end up getting: lots of welfare for big families! lots of mulligans for that, too.)