- First Democrat to Win City Hall Since David Dinkins in 1989
- Bill de Blasio defeated his Republican challenger Joe Lhota on Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat to be elected mayor of New York City in 24 years
The Wall Street Journal
By Michael Howard Saul
6 November 2013
Bill de Blasio won a lopsided victory in the race for New York City mayor on Tuesday night after running a populist campaign that promised New Yorkers a clear break from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. He is the first Democrat to capture City Hall in 24 years.
Mr. de Blasio, the city's public advocate and a former City Council member from Brooklyn, defeated Republican nominee Joe Lhota, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. With 59% of precincts reporting at 11:20 p.m., Mr. de Blasio led with 73% of the vote to Mr. Lhotoa's 25%.
Mr. de Blasio, 52 years old, will take office as the city's 109th mayor on Jan. 1.
The victory—by one of the widest margins in a New York City mayoral election in the past century—reflected overwhelming support for Mr. de Blasio from virtually every demographic. According to an Edison Research exit poll, 96% of black voters and up to 85% of Latino voters backed Mr. de Blasio. He won the support of 90% of Democrats, 16% of Republicans and nearly half of voters who are unaffiliated or belong to another party, the exit poll showed.
More than two-thirds of voters said they wanted the incoming mayor to move the city in a different direction from Mr. Bloomberg, the exit poll said, and 86% of those who felt that way voted for Mr. de Blasio.
In front of cheering supporters at his campaign party in a Brooklyn YMCA, Mr. de Blasio said New Yorkers "spoke out loudly and clearly for a new direction for our city, united by a belief that our city should leave no New Yorker behind."
"The challenges we face have been decades in the making, and the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight," he said. "But make no mistake: The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and tonight we set forth on it, together, as one city."
Next year, for the first time in two decades, Democrats will control both the executive and legislative branches of city government, ushering in what is expected to be a new era of left-leaning policies in the nation's largest city. Despite Democrats' six-to-one advantage in voter registration, the party's nominee has lost every mayoral election since David Dinkins, the city's first and only black mayor, won in 1989.
A de Blasio spokesman said Mr. Lhota called at 9:29 p.m. to concede. Mr. de Blasio also took calls from President Barack Obama and Mr. Bloomberg.
In a concession speech at his Lower Manhattan campaign party shortly after that call, Mr. Lhota said: "It was a good fight, and it was a fight worth having."
"Despite what you might have heard, we are one city," Mr. Lhota said, taking swipe at his opponent's "Tale of Two Cities" theme. "We are one people. And we want our city to move forward, not backwards. And I do hope our mayor-elect understands it before it's too late."
A proud liberal, Mr. de Blasio has pledged to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, increase income taxes on New Yorkers making more than $500,000 to pay for prekindergarten and after-school programs, and to make changes to the Police Department's controversial stop-and-frisk tactic that he says unfairly targets black and Latino men.
One of his top legislative priorities at City Hall is to expand the newly enacted mandatory sick-pay law, approved over Mr. Bloomberg's veto, so that many more workers will benefit. His top priority in Albany is to persuade lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who endorsed him, to pass his tax increase, a proposal that will be an early test of the new mayor's political skills.
Mr. de Blasio would bring change to the upper echelons of city government, installing a new commissioner to run the nation's largest police department, a new chancellor to oversee the country's largest public school system and a new chairman to manage the continent's largest public-housing agency. Most of the city's department heads are expected to be replaced.
Tuesday's victory comes nearly eight years after Mr. de Blasio lost his bid to become council speaker to Christine Quinn, a stinging career defeat. But Mr. de Blasio successfully won his campaign for public advocate in 2009, and this year he climbed from the bottom of the polls to defeat Ms. Quinn and other well-known Democrats in September's primary.
In the general election, Mr. Lhota failed to gain traction, despite painting Mr. de Blasio as an untested manager who would make the city less safe and who lacks the experience and fiscal know-how to manage the city's $70 billion budget.
Public polls showed Mr. Lhota behind by 40-plus percentage points from the start. Even on public safety, voters said they trusted Mr. de Blasio more than Mr. Lhota.
Born in Manhattan and raised in Massachusetts, Mr. de Blasio set down roots in Brooklyn with his wife, Chirlane McCray. He is white and she is black, and their multiracial family became an attribute in the campaign. Mr. de Blasio's son and daughter both appeared in popular ads.
There hasn't been a New York City mayor elected from outside Manhattan since Brooklyn-based Abraham Beame, who became mayor in 1974 and was sworn in at his vacation home in Queens.
One Brooklyn resident, Marcia Ward, 54, of East Flatbush, said she volunteered for Mr. de Blasio after her pastor endorsed him.
"He was already the winner," said Ms. Ward. "He is a people person for everyone."
In the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, Tracey Williams, a transportation supervisor, said she voted for Mr. de Blasio because "he's more sensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged, working people."
Council Member Letitia James will succeed Mr. de Blasio as public advocate, becoming the first black woman to hold citywide office. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will become the city's comptroller, defeating Republican John Burnett.
—Joe Jackson, Jackie Snow and Josh Dawsey contributed to this article.
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