Bill de Blasio won the New York Democratic primary for mayor’s office on Tuesday, but it’s still not clear if he garnered enough votes to avoid a runoff election against Bill Thompson. Joe Lhota won the Republican primary.
De Blasio ran as the most liberal Democrat in the field, but as The New York Times notes, he shifted to general election mode in his post-election speech at a music club in Brooklyn.
“We were reminded that day of a crucially important lesson that the job of those of us in positions of authority is to keep our city safe, to be constantly vigilant, to use every tool at our disposal to protect our people,” he told supporters on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He won just over 40 percent of the ballots that are already counted, but there are still thousands others that will have to be added to the tally. “It will take days to count the many ballots cast today because of broken machines and missing registration,” Dick Dadey of Citizens Union told The New York Daily News. “We may not know if there is a clear victor or a runoff for at least a week — if not longer.”
Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said the paper ballots will be counted starting first thing Monday morning. If a runoff is needed, it will take place on Oct. 1.
Lhota, who was Rudolph Giuliani’s deputy mayor, will move on to the general election on Nov. 5. He called his win “the first step in continuing a strong future for our city.”
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner came in fifth place in the Democrat primary. His campaign was derailed by another sexting scandal and his fiery confrontations with voters. Christine Quinn, who was once a frontrunner, came in third and John Liu was in fourth.
image: Wikimedia Commons
