[Update below.] 9:42 p.m. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is being projected to have won a third term as New York City’s 108th mayor based on early returns and exit polls. Bloomberg – who persuaded the City Council to amend a law that would have restricted him to two terms and then spent some $90 million of his personal fortune on his campaign – bested Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., his Democratic rival. It was the fifth straight defeat for the Democrats, who, despite a massive registration advantage, have not captured the mayoralty since 1989.
With 52 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Bloomberg was narrowly leading Mr. Thompson, 48.6 percent to 48.1 percent. The mayor was projected to win by a much thinner margin than in 2005, when he thoroughly trounced Fernando Ferrer.
Mr. Bloomberg, 67, an independent running on the Republican line, overwhelmed Mr. Thompson in spending, and deflected the comptroller’s repeated efforts to criticize the mayor’s record on housing, education and the economy. Mr. Thompson, 56, devoted his day to campaigning, and did not let up even as the voting wound down.
Mr. Bloomberg, an independent running on the Republican and Independence lines, spent some $90 million of his fortune on this campaign.
Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is expected to win the election for Manhattan district attorney, after winning the Democratic primary with the backing of Robert M. Morgenthau, who has held the job since 1975 and is retiring. (Richard M. Aborn, who lost to Mr. Vance in the primary, is on the Working Families Party line, but has stopped campaigning.)
Although Democrats control the majority of the City Council, there are a handful of closely watched races. All 51 seats are up.
In the 49th Council District, on the north shore of Staten Island, the Democratic nominee is Deborah L. Rose, who would be the first black elected official from the city’s least populous borough. She is vying against Kenneth C. Mitchell, the incumbent, who won the office in a special election in February. He lost the Democratic primary to Ms. Rose, but is running on the Conservative line.
The 19th Council District, in northeastern Queens, has been the subject of vigorous campaigning by Kevin D. Kim, the Democratic nominee, who would be the first Korean-American elected to the council, and the Republican nominee, Daniel J. Halloran III. The winner will replace Councilman Tony Avella, who did not seek re-election.
In the 32nd Council District, in southeastern Queens, a 24-year-old Republican councilman, Eric A. Ulrich, who won a special election in February, is fighting to hold onto his seat against a Democratic opponent, Frank P. Gulluscio.
In the 34th Council District, which includes parts of Williamsburg and Bushwick, Brooklyn, Councilwoman Diana Reyna faces a stiff challenge from the Working Families nominee, Maritza Davila. Ms. Davila has the support of the Brooklyn Democratic leader, Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, whom Ms. Reyna has fought over the rezoning of a 31-acre parcel called the Broadway Triangle. The Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas A. DiMarzio, has placed automated calls urging support for Mr. Lopez (though the calls did not mention Ms. Reyna or Ms. Davila by name).
Another closely fought race has unfolded in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where Albert Vann, a Democrat elected to the council in 2001, is seeking a third term to represent the 36th Council District. He faces a stiff challenge from Mark Winston Griffith, the Working Families nominee.
10:51 p.m. BLOOMBERG WINS
Call him Mike “Three Times” Bloomberg.
Mayor Bloomberg, who engineered a change in the city’s term limits law so he could run again, won a squeaker tonight as he was narrowly re-elected to a third term as he defeated while vastly outspending Comptroller Bill Thompson.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Bloomberg had a 51 to 46 percent edge — a much smaller gap than the double-digit win polls had projected on the eve of the election.
Before Election Day, various polls had Bloomberg winning by as little as 12 points to as many as 16.
With his victory, Bloomberg ensures himself a place in New York political lore by becoming the first mayor to win a third term since Ed Koch in 1985.
The victory also marks the fifth consecutive mayoral election where a Democrat has not won office after Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, won two straight terms, and Bloomberg matched that feat four years ago.
The City Council rolled back term limits last year, which allowed Bloomberg to run again.
The 67-year-old billionaire mayor, an independent who ran on the Republican and Independence lines, blanketed the city and airwaves with ads, spending more than $100 million of his own money to bankroll his campaign.
The amount represents the most expensive self-financed campaign in American history. Bloomberg spent $85 million to win re-election against Fernando Ferrer in 2005.
Bloomberg is described by Forbes magazine as the richest man in New York with a $16 billion fortune.
“This is the hardest and best run campaign I’ve ever seen,” said Koch, who endorsed Bloomberg.
Eight years after he came out of nowhere following the Sept. 11 attacks to defeat Mark Green, Bloomberg won after he repeatedly touted his record that features the lowest crime levels in decades and the highest school test scores in a generation.
“He is building on the record of Rudy Giuliani,” said Ed Cox, chairman of the state Republican Party.
New Yorkers who voted against Bloomberg overwhelmingly mentioned his changed position on term limits and exorbitant spending.
“I didn’t like the idea that King Mike thinks he can buy anything he wants, including my vote,” said Democrat Kevin Anterline, 56, who voted for Thompson.
Marjorie Shea, a retired high school teacher, said the spending was “overkill” — but voted for Bloomberg anyway, saying his wealth and businessman’s mind makes him an independent thinker.
“The team he has in place is doing very well. And he’s not beholden to anyone,” said Shea, a Democrat who voted on Manhattan’s Upper West side.
Helen Newman, 32, voted for Green Party candidate Billy Talen, but said she wasn’t bothered by the mayor’s deep pockets.
“I didn’t really see anyone show up who had a chance against him,” said Newman. “But then I guess no one showed up who had a chance against him because he has so much money.”
{NY Times/Agencies/NY Post/Matzav.com Newscenter}
