Which New York City Mayoral Candidate Was A Bigger High School Heartthrob?

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Tagged:high school heartthrob, de blasio, lhota

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Liberal de Blasio leads New York Democratic mayoral primary

1 of 15. Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Bill de Blasio speaks with supporters before a mayoral primary results party in New York September 10, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Edith Honan and Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:56pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill de Blasio, a liberal running against the policies of departing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was tantalizingly close to clinching the Democratic nomination for mayor after storming back from fourth in the opinion polls a month ago.

De Blasio, the city's public advocate, could avoid a runoff election if he surpasses 40 percent of votes cast in Tuesday's primary. Unofficial results with some ballots yet to be counted showed him with 40.2 percent compared to 26.1 percent for former city comptroller Bill Thompson.

Some 19,000 absentee and military ballots will be counted starting on Monday, election officials said, enough to tip the vote to either side of 40 percent. A final tally could take days.

Any Democrat would be favored against the Republican candidate in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one. The winner of the general election on November 5 will replace Bloomberg, who has been mayor of the most populous city in the United States for 12 years.

In the Republican mayoral primary, Joe Lhota, a deputy to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former head of the city's mass transit agency, won 52.6 percent of the vote. He defeated grocery chain billionaire businessman, John Catsimatidis, who had 40.6 percent.

At his victory party after polls closed on Tuesday night, the unabashed liberal de Blasio called his campaign "an unapologetically progressive alternative to the Bloomberg era."

"Settling for the status quo isn't just too small. It's a risk we as a city cannot afford to take," he said, flanked by his mixed-race family. "And policing policies that single out young people of color ... that isn't a New York we can allow to continue."

The 6-foot-5 inch tall de Blasio also has proposed raising taxes on the city's highest earners to pay for universal pre-kindergarten.

New York City political pundits and newspapers agreed that Dante, his 16-year-old son with an impressive Afro, provided momentum that helped catapult de Blasio into the lead.

"Way to Fro!" proclaimed Wednesday's front page of the New York Daily News.

The teen, whose father is white and mother is black, appeared in a TV advertisement criticizing Bloomberg's "stop-and-frisk" crime fighting tactic.

The advertisement aired in August and changed the course of the mayor's race. It was downloaded 100,000 times - including by 2,000 people in Texas - before it was even advertised online, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Former city comptroller Thompson, the only black candidate, vowed to stay in the race and face de Blasio if a runoff is necessary.

"We're going to finish what we started," he said at his primary night celebration. "This is far from over."

Thompson lost the 2009 mayoral election to Bloomberg, who has served three four-year terms and is leaving office because of term limits.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who would have been the New York's first female and openly gay mayor if elected, was seen as most likely to follow Bloomberg's moderate policies. She won only 15 percent of the vote, the results showed.

CRIME AND POLITICS

New Yorkers, despite the overwhelming number of registered Democrats in the city of 8.3 million, have not elected a Democratic Party mayor in 20 years. Giuliani won plaudits for reducing New York's notoriously high crime rate and Bloomberg benefited from Giuliani's endorsement following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Republican candidate Lhota faces an uphill battle. He signaled his general election strategy on Tuesday night, reminding voters of the Giuliani and Bloomberg years.

"I'm hearing a lot coming from the other side about a tale of two cities and how they want to tear down the progress that's happened over the last 20 years," Lhota said. "This tale is nothing more than class warfare, an attempt to divide our city."

"The last thing we want is to send our city back to the days of economic despair, fear and hopelessness," he said.

Among the Democrats, former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner placed last among the major candidates with 5 percent. He had led at one but saw his campaign crumble after news that he had not ended, as he promised, his penchant for texting women lewd pictures of himself.

"We had the best ideas. Sadly, I was an imperfect messenger," Weiner said in a Manhattan bar. His wife, Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton when she was U.S. Secretary of State, was not seen beside him.

Sydney Leathers, who came forward this summer to say she and Weiner had frequent sexually charged conversations online and over the phone, spoke to reporters outside his primary party.

"I'm here celebrating his impending doom, his loss, here at his victory party," Leathers said.

The candidate's entourage found itself in a scrum with reporters as Weiner was escorted from his concession speech to his car. As Weiner drove away, he showed his middle finger in a gesture caught by television cameras.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Francesca Trianni, Victoria Cavaliere and Hilary Russ; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Daniel Trotta)

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Lively New York mayoral primary race goes down to the wire

1 of 15. New York City democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio exits a voting booth in the Brooklyn borough of New York after voting in the democratic primary election September 10, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

By Edith Honan and Francesca Trianni

NEW YORK | Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:22pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City voters wrestled with antiquated voting machines and emergency ballots on Tuesday in an election to choose candidates hoping to succeed three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg in running the most populous city in the United States.

On the Democratic side, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio leads opinion polls over City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former city comptroller Bill Thompson in a lively primary that has featured a crowded field of candidates, a scandal over lewd pictures and a heated debate over police tactics.

De Blasio is one of the more liberal candidates on the ballot, while Quinn, who would be the city's first female and openly gay mayor, is seen as most likely to follow Bloomberg's moderate policies. Thompson lost the mayor's race in 2009 to Bloomberg, who has been mayor since January 2002 and is leaving office due to term limits.

De Blasio and Quinn each held the lead in polls at one time or another during the topsy-turvy Democratic primary race. As did former U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner, who saw his lead vanish after news that his penchant for sending women lewd pictures of himself had not ended.

If no candidate wins at least 40 percent of the vote in Tuesday's election, there will be a run-off on October 1.

On the quieter Republican side - Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans in the city of 8.3 million people - the former head of the city's mass transit agency, Joe Lhota, has led in opinion polls.

Lhota, who was former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's budget director and later his deputy mayor for operations, is facing grocery chain billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis.

Polls were due to close at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT)

Voter Marvin Pasternaq, an accountant from Queens, said he was still undecided and planned to take full advantage of the late closing.

"They all talk about jobs, housing and education, because that's what the public wants to hear about," he said. "But after Election Day, who's going to deliver?"

BULKY VOTING MACHINES

At polling stations, voters griped about bulky 1960s-era mechanical voting machines that were breaking down and forcing the use of emergency ballots.

One voter who had to use an emergency ballot was Lhota, when the lever machine broke at his Brooklyn polling station.

"We're going back to paper ballot? Are you kidding?" Lhota said before handing out cookies to poll workers.

The mechanical voting machines were retired after the 2009 election in favor of an electronic system with optical scanners.

The state government, however, approved use of the old machines for the primary after the newer system caused delays in the vote count.

The city Board of Elections said any voter facing a non-functioning machine could use an emergency ballot and said the lever machines had a 4.3 percent failure rate when last used.

Two opinion polls on Monday showed de Blasio leading among the Democrats - 39 percent in a Quinnipiac survey and 36 percent in an NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll.

"We expect a runoff, we're ready for a runoff, and we've been planning all along for it," de Blasio said when he voted.

In an interview with New York magazine, Bloomberg effectively threw his support behind Quinn and took issue with the prominent role de Blasio's mixed-race family played in the campaign.

He suggested the strategy was meant to fuel "class warfare" and was potentially "racist."

Chris Carr, 62, a Manhattan hairdresser said she agreed with that assessment by Bloomberg and supported Quinn.

"I voted for her because she is a woman and she is a lesbian," she said. "Those are the things I care about."

Bridget Morgan, 70, a former banker from Queens, said she supported Thompson because "he knows about money and about the law."

"I would have voted for Quinn, but she's anti-dogs and pro-landlords," she said, "and you can't have that in New York."

A local animal advocacy group has criticized Quinn, who has two rescued dogs, for her support of the carriage horse business in Central Park and accused her of opposing pro-animal measures.

Weiner, polling in fourth place, is fighting for his political life.

Resigning from Congress in 2011 after admitting he sent lewd pictures of himself to women he met online and lied about it, he had asked voters to give him a second chance.

He quickly moved to the lead, but his campaign collapsed following revelations he had sent more lewd photographs online.

(Additional reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst; and Grant McCool)

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