Eric Adams knows he won’t be mayor in 2026 but he doesn’t want New Yorkers to recognize the painfully weak position he’s put himself and the city in.  “You win the race by raising money… Have to raise money. Everything else is fluff.” That was his private advice, quoted in the historic federal charges against a sitting mayor, when “Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead aimed to replace him as Brooklyn borough president while Adams ran for the big job.  Whitehead — who says he’s the illegitimate son of a successful businessman who was choked to death by police officers in Crown Heights in 1978, though that man’s family has denied his paternity claim and he’s declined to take a DNA test — started his ministry after serving a prison sentence for fraud and identity theft.  The thief turned preacher Adams publicly praised as “my good friend and good brother” didn’t raise enough money and didn’t win his race.  Whitehead went back to prison this year after being convicted of crimes including stealing $90,000 from a grandmother who worshiped at his church.  Prosecutors had the bishop on tape boasting his mentor the mayor was the key to his money-making schemes and would meet “with whoever I need him to,” though they flatly say Adams wasn’t involved in Whitehead’s efforts to cash in on his public office.  Whitehead told the Daily News after he was indicted that “this is a witch hunt against the mayor, and I am collateral damage.” Adams told Whitehead in 2018 that “I have a $7 million race” for mayor in 2021. “I have a clear plan to raise it and each night we are out executing the plan.” Adams executed his plan and won his race, but now the money has dried up as the feds have closed in. The mayor is trying to weather the storm and demonstrate that he’s still in command of his political future, but the fundraising numbers that came out last week show otherwise.  Everything else is fluff.  Adams’ 2025 campaign brought in just $212,416 in the last three months and returned nearly a third of that money, leaving him with just $146,500 in his slowest fundraising period as mayor.  That paltry haul includes $10,000 from a real estate mogul who the feds have identified as a supplier of straw donors to his campaign, and his employees. Vito Pitta, the Adams campaign lawyer, wouldn’t say if the campaign intended to keep that money.  It also includes just one donation, of $250, from the two and a half weeks after his federal indictment.  Adams, a previously prodigious fundraiser whose office should give him a huge advantage over his challengers if it doesn’t discourage them from running in the first place, brought in less than Scott Stringer and not even half as much as Brad Lander.  It’s also less than half of what Adams raised in the same period last year.  Adams and Pitta said the mayor’s fundraising petered out because he hit the cap for spending in the primary in the city’s matching funds program, but it’s far from clear Adams will be allowed to participate given that he’s facing criminal charges for allegedly cheating it in his last race.  And there’s no reason he wouldn’t be raising money for the general election. As a smart politician once said, “you win the race by raising money.”  Meantime, Adams’ criminal defense fund is already in the red, raising the question of how Hizzoner intends to defend himself or pay his bills. Donors gave less than $100,000 in the last three months, even as Adams reported spending $500,000.  And that half-million is a vast undercount since it doesn’t include any payments to his new lead criminal defense lawyer, Alex Spiro, who usually charges $2,000 an hour.  The public won’t know for months what he’s billing and how much Adams owes him since Spiro conveniently didn’t submit an invoice until after the disclosure period ended.  Adams, who’s holding on to the slim hope that a judge dismisses some of the charges against him or that Donald Trump wins the presidential election and kills the case, still has a few cards to play.  But the weaker he looks, the more often his bluffs get called.   New Yorkers long ago rendered their verdict on his job performance and they’ll do it again in June if he’s still in office and on the ballot.  Adams is running out of chips and time before what must already be painfully obvious to him is obvious to everyone else.  Siegel ([email protected]) is an editor at The City, a host of the FAQ NYC podcast and a columnist for the Daily News.