By Lincoln Anderson, Josh Rogers and Julie Shapiro
Despite outrage among many New Yorkers over last year’s extension of term limits and the fact that he spent a jaw-dropping $90 million on his re-election campaign, Mayor Mike Bloomberg squeaked out a victory on Tuesday against Bill Thompson. With more than 1 million votes cast, Bloomberg got almost 51 percent of the total and Thompson, 46 percent.
In local races, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmember Rosie Mendez easily won re-election, while Margaret Chin became the first Chinese American to represent Chinatown in the City Council. All three faced token Republican opposition in their overwhelmingly Democratic districts, with each getting more than 80 percent of the vote.
Bloomberg did better on the West Side of Lower Manhattan than the East Side, according to unofficial returns. In the 66th Assembly District, which covers Tribeca, Soho Greenwich Village and part of Battery Park City, Bloomberg netted 62 percent of the vote to Thompson’s 33 percent. In the 64th Assembly District, which covers the Financial District, Chinatown, the Lower East Side and much of B.P.C., the race was closer, with Bloomberg receiving 55 percent of the vote to Thompson’s 42 percent.
In borough-wide contests, Scott Stringer was voted a second term as Manhattan borough president, while Cy Vance won for Manhattan district attorney.
In other citywide races, John Liu was elected comptroller and Bill de Blasio, public advocate.
Although Tuesday’s turnout at local polls was higher than for the September primary, it still seemed relatively light.
At the voting site at The Door, on Broome St. on Soho’s western edge, a very informal exit poll around 7 p.m. had Bloomberg winning by 4 to 1.
Champa Weinreb, said, “I’m a Democrat — but I voted for Bloomberg,” who ran on the Republican and Independence party lines. “He’s done a good job,” said Weinreb, who said she is in the “business” field. “The other guy is basically unknown to me.”
“I think steady leadership in the next four years is needed, and I think the city is going to have some problems,” Ron Shapira said of why the mayor inspired his confidence. “At this point in our particular history, it’s the better choice.”
After relatively high turnout in the primary and runoff elections earlier this fall in Chinatown, a strong showing was expected on Election Day. The neighborhood had two candidates to rally behind: Chin, the first Chinese American to represent Chinatown, and Liu, the first Chinese American elected to citywide office.
Several voters at polling sites on Henry St. said Chin’s Chinese heritage was a factor in their vote.
“She’s the right person for this neighborhood,” said Bill LaPiana, 57, who is white and has lived in Chinatown for 30 years. “The city’s great strength is everyone getting to participate. This neighborhood is long overdue.”
Another voter, Kenny Ho, 49, said Chin’s heritage was enough to win his vote. Asked why he picked her, he replied, “I have no idea, but she’s Chinese — I support her.”
Chin won 97 percent of the Asian vote in her First District race (compared to 86 percent overall), and Liu won 90 percent of the Asian vote across the city (compared to 76 percent overall), according to exit polls done by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
“I feel great,” the newly elected Chin said Wednesday afternoon, though she admitted she hadn’t slept much the night before. “I just think it’s exciting, with so many new councilmembers coming in. There’s so many issues to work on — the election is over and now the work begins.”
Chin said she has still not met with Councilmember Alan Gerson, whom she is replacing, but she expects to sit down with him soon.
At a campaign rally Monday in Chinatown, Chin credited the neighborhood’s high turnout earlier this fall to the presence of two Chinese candidates, and to better organizing efforts.
In the general election, Chin was hoping for a high turnout in every neighborhood.
“You gotta vote,” she told Downtown Express. “Our community is catching up, but other communities gotta continue to vote.”
While Chin had hoped Thompson would win Tuesday, she was happy with his stronger-than-expected showing.
Still, Bloomberg did better among Asian-American voters than he did in the city as a whole, with 62 percent of Asian Americans supporting Bloomberg, AALDEF said.
In Chinatown, though, many voters who spoke to Downtown Express replied “not Bloomberg” or “anyone but Bloomberg” when asked who they picked.
Even those who said they voted for Thompson gave reasons that were anti-Bloomberg rather than pro-Thompson.
Michael Grossman, 44, opposed Bloomberg’s extension of term limits and the massive amount of money he poured into his campaign for a third term.
“That is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind for a democracy,” said Grossman, who voted at P.S. 130 on Baxter St. “Bloomberg is greedy and power hungry, and I think he’s a narcissist…. I don’t trust him.”
Grossman cast his vote for Thompson, but he did it with resignation.
“I don’t think he’s going to win,” Grossman said.
At P.S. 1 on Henry St., Ling Chen, 40, said in Chinese (her 13-year-old daughter translated) that she picked Thompson over Bloomberg because the mayor didn’t change anything in his eight years in office.
At P.S. 234 in Tribeca turnout was light but it appeared higher than the September primary. A handful of voters were more favorable to Bloomberg than they were in Chinatown, although Thompson had some support there too.
“The city is safe and clean and crime is down,” said Scott Daly, a 45-year-old Tribeca resident who voted for Bloomberg.
Margaret Chin looked confident at a rally on Monday
But John, a 50-year-old Independence Plaza resident, said he thought Thompson was “more for the middle class.”
Philip Epstein, 53, said he was against the mayor four years ago because of all of the arrests of protesters to the Republican Convention but he voted and “forgave” Bloomberg this time because of the mayor’s fiscal management.
“I like him as a mayor and as a businessman,” he said. “He knows about money and he’s completely incorruptible, which is the most important thing.”
Epstein, like several other voters at the site, said they voted Democrat in every other race. He backed PJ Kim in the September Democratic Council primary because of Kim’s “fresh ideas,” but voted for Chin on Tuesday.
Barry Rosenthal, 52, a doctor who lives in Hudson Square, cast his ballot for Thompson.
“Because I’m tired of Bloomberg, and I think that he is too wealthy and too arrogant to be mayor any longer,” Rosenthal stated. “I think that this city, it’s gotten to the point that if you’re not wealthy, you can’t live here — and this is from somebody who’s fairly wealthy. I think that Thompson must be more in touch with the citizenry than Bloomberg. … I think, like most people, I voted for Thompson because I just don’t want Bloomberg — more than for anything Thompson has done in particular.”
Rosenthal said a big issue for him was the three-district Department of Sanitation “megagarage” planned for the west end of Spring St., down the block from his building. He said he was “very much opposed” to the city’s project and supports the community-alternative Hudson Rise plan.
But, unlike Rosenthal, the trickle of other voters at the site on election night were flicking the lever for Bloomberg.
“I just like him,” said one middle-aged Soho woman who declined to give her name. Of Thompson, she said, “I don’t know that much about him. I just think Bloomberg’s done a good job,” she said. “I think he’s just able to understand the complicated structure of the city and finance.”
