Riding a ravenous desire by voters for change, Bill de Blasio scored a crushing victory over Republican Joe Lhota Tuesday to become New York’s 109th mayor — and the first Democrat to hold the office in 20 years.
With 97% of the precincts reporting, de Blasio held a commanding lead of 74% to 24% — the largest margin of victory by a nonincumbent in any mayor’s race in city history.
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Bill de Blasio celebrates his New York City mayoral election victory with a family smack down, at a party for supporters at the Park Slope Armory YMCA.
De Blasio ascended the stage inside the Park Slope Armory YMCA in Brooklyn at 10:38 p.m. and proclaimed his landslide victory a mandate for his liberal agenda and a change in course after two decades of Republican rule at City Hall.
“Today you spoke loudly and clearly for a new direction for our city,” de Blasio told his jubilant supporters.
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The de Blasios pose for a picture after casting their votes in the New York City mayoral race.
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“We are united in the belief that our city should leave no New Yorker behind. The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and tonight we set forth on it together as one city.”
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Bill kisses wife Chirlane, as their daughter Chiara (left) looks on with a smile during his election victory party.
Reprising a central campaign theme, de Blasio singled out income inequality as one of the main challenges facing New York, and he warned that tackling it would not be easy.
“The challenges we face have been decades in the making,” he said. “And the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight.”
James Keivom / New York Daily News
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio will be the first Democrat to lead New York in 20 years.
De Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, donned a stunning red dress for the victory bash — and she got a special acknowledgement from her grateful husband.
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Chiara de Blasio surprised her father this morning at his Park Slope home by returning home from college to vote.
“Give it up for the new First Lady of New York City,” he said to wild applause.
De Blasio declared victory after receiving congratulatory calls from Lhota, Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama.
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Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota gives his concession speech at Gansevoort Park Avenue in Manhattan on Election Night.
Over in Manhattan, Lhota threw in the towel before barely any of the votes were counted, conceding defeat just 29 minutes after the polls closed at 9 p.m.
“It is natural to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it,” Lhota told the despondent crowd at the Gansevoort Hotel. “It was a good fight, and it was a fight worth having.”
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‘We must move beyond it,’ Lhota told the despondent crowd as he conceded defeat on Election Night.
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And while Lhota urged the crowd to join him in “offering the next mayor our good will,” he also sounded a note of defiance, taking a last shot at de Blasio’s campaign theme of New York as a “tale of two cities.”
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“Despite what you might have heard, we are all one city,” he said. “We want our city to move forward and not backward, and I hope our mayor-elect understands that before it’s too late.”
An exit poll showed just how eager New Yorkers were to turn the page from the Bloomberg era.
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Chirlane McCray (right) watches as husband Bill de Blasio speaks after voting at the Park Slope Branch Public Library in Brooklyn on Election Day.
Nearly seven out of 10 voters said the city needed to move in a new direction from Bloomberg’s policies, according to the survey conducted by Edison Research. And among those wanting change, de Blasio triumphed, capturing 85% of their votes.
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Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News
Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota brought out former boss and ex-Mayor Mayor Rudy Giuliani to help get votes.
At 52, de Blasio is one of the youngest men elected mayor of New York. And, as such, he also represents a generational break from Bloomberg, a 71-year-old billionaire Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent who had charted his own unique course for the city.
De Blasio’s election is part of a sweeping overhaul of municipal government.
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Bill de Blasio waives to the crowd as he walks onstage at his victory party at the Park Slope Armory YMCA on Election Night.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was elected city controller, and Brooklyn City Councilwoman Letitia James will take de Blasio’s current post, public advocate. Voters also installed new borough presidents for Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan.
Like the campaign for mayor, the outcome of all those races was settled by the September primaries.
James Keivom/New York Daily News
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio (second from left) with his family after casting his ballot for Tuesday’s election.
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As a result, turnout Tuesday was light. Between 22% and 25% of the city’s 4.6 million registered voters bothered to cast ballots.
James Keivom/New York Daily News
Tobias Nichols, 2, stands below a voting booth as people cast their ballots on Election Day at the Park Slope Branch Public Library on Tuesday.
The contest for City Hall’s top job pitted an unapologetic Park Slope liberal against Lhota, who was a trusted aide to Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor.
De Blasio made the tactical decision early on to run as the anti-Bloomberg.
James Keivom/ New York Daily News
Bill de Blasio embraces wife Chirlane McCray after delivering his victory speech at an Election Night party at the Park Slope Armory YMCA.
He showcased his handsome, biracial family — in particular his ’fro-tastic 16-year-old son Dante — in a series of campaign commercials that struck a chord in an increasingly diverse city.
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James Keivom/New York Daily News
Bill de Blasio with his son Dante at the Park Slope Branch Public Library on Tuesday. Dante — and his afro — were de Blasio’s secret weapon during his campaign.
And he pushed hard for a liberal agenda that included shackling the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactics and calling for a tax increase on people earning over $500,000 to pay for universal pre-kindergarten.
In the 59-year-old Lhota, de Blasio faced a progressive Republican with a well-regarded record of public service as a former city budget director and deputy mayor, and former chairman of the MTA.
Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News
People vote at P.S. 6 on E. 81st St. on Tues., Nov. 5.
But in a city where there are six Democrats for every Republican, Lhota was the underdog from the moment he outdistanced billionaire John Catsimatidis to win the Republican nomination.
Although he tried to create some distance from himself and Bloomberg, Lhota could not compete against the overwhelming desire among voters for something completely new.
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Bill de Blasio is a big hit in his family’s hometown in Italy.
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De Blasio made no attempt to water down his liberal politics as he attacked Lhota as a man with “no vision of change.”
James Keivom/New York Daily News
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio speaks to the press, joined by (from left to right) his daughter Chiara, son Dante and wife Chirlane McCray.
And de Blasio tried to tie Lhota to the Republicans in Washington who shut down the government — a message that easily found a home in the heavily Democratic city.
Three times, de Blasio and Lhota clashed in contentious debates that exposed the stark differences between the candidates but which failed to change the dynamics of the race.
James Keivom/New York Daily News
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and his family dance after his victory speech on Election Night.
Voters just didn’t warm to Lhota, exit pollsters found.
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Joe Lhota casts his ballot in the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday.
The exit poll found that nearly eight out of 10 viewed de Blasio favorably, while a staggering six out of 10 who voted Tuesday had an unfavorable opinion of Lhota, a toxic percentage for any candidate.
De Blasio got more help when Obama blew into town and campaigned with him in Brooklyn. And the big money, sensing a rout, jumped on the de Blasio bandwagon.
James Keivom/New York Daily News
De Blasio hugs his daughter Chiara after casting his ballot at the Park Slope Branch Public Library on Tuesday.
As New Yorkers trickled to the polls Tuesday, de Blasio looked supremely confident as each hour took him closer to claiming his prize.
“This morning is an extraordinary moment for me and my family,” he said after voting at his Park Slope polling precinct.
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“It’s been a very, very long journey. And to get to this morning at our polling site in our neighborhood and to finally cast our vote is an incredibly emotional moment.”
A somewhat subdued Lhota voted in Brooklyn Heights with his wife Tamra and daughter Kathryn. He said he had no regrets.
As the polls closed, it was a tale of two cities, as both sides awaited the inevitable.
In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, a Republican district leader who would only give his name as Hank, sensed the political tidal wave that was cresting. “We can feel the doom coming,” he said.
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Outside the de Blasio celebration in Park Slope, it was a different story.
“For the last 20 years, we haven’t had a Democrat,” said one city worker. “We are excited and thrilled.”
“Tonight is a night for celebration,” added Hector Figueroa, president of the 32-BJ local of the Service Employees International Union. “It is one of the most hopeful moments for working families in New York City in many years.”
With Erik Badia, Matthew J. Perlman and Julia Xanthos
jfermino@nydailynews.com
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