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De Blasio Has 40.2% Of Vote, But Thousands Of Ballots Haven't Been Counted
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 11, 2013
Modified Sep 11, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 11, 2013
Modified Sep 11, 2013
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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was triumphant last night, winning 40.2% of the Democratic vote in the mayoral primary, but that victory is caveated by the fact that only 98% of the precincts are reporting and there are "tens of thousands of votes outstanding — including 19,000 paper ballots."
The possibility of winning votes from the uncounted ballots had former Comptroller Bill Thompson, who ran a very close campaign against Mayor Bloomberg in 2009, telling his supporters, "Tonight is for every one of you out there who have ever been counted out," and vowed to wait for a full counting of all the ballots. Capital New York's Azi Paybarah reported from Thompson's event:
[T]here was a prayer from Victor Brown, a pastor at a church on Staten Island, who joked that some people were "drunk with stupidity" and saying "go with the 'fro," referring to an unofficial slogan of the Bill de Blasio campaign which refers to the celebrated hairstyle of the candidate's teenage son and campaign-ad star.
Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, acknowledged de Blasio was getting "a significant amount of support" from black voters. I asked whether it was the Dante ad.
Floyd said it was.
"What was not pointed out is that Dante de Blasio is not the candidate," he said. "And sometimes people vote for the weirdest thing."
Still, many exit polls showed that the majority of voters wanted a change from the Bloomberg years—and de Blasio presented the biggest shift from that. In a message to supporters, de Blasio wrote, "When we started this journey on a cold day in January, a small but dedicated group gathered to begin a campaign to address the crippling inequalities that have made New York a Tale of Two Cities. Together, we began a campaign to change this city."
With 98% of precincts reporting, de Blasio had 257,034 votes—40.2% of the vote—while Thompson had 166,516 votes (26%); candidates need 40% of the vote to avoid a runoff. However, in the 2005 primary, Fernando Ferrer had just under 40% of the vote and Anthony Weiner conceded the race to him. The Democratic party might urge Thompson to concede, so de Blasio—who polls show winning runoffs scenarios against Thompson—can concentrate on his campaign against the Republican candidate, former MTA chairman and Giuliani deputy mayor Joe Lhota.
Also: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the one-time, longtime frontrunner, had 99,226 votes/15.5% of the vote; Comptroller John Liu had 44,387 votes/7%; and former Congressman Anthony Weiner had 31,389 votes/4.9%.
Tagged
anthony weiner
bill de blasio
bill thompson
christine quinn
Election 2013
joe lhota
john liu
runoff
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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