New York City mayoral election, 2009

New York City mayoral election, 2009

November 3, 2009

Candidate Michael Bloomberg Bill Thompson Party Independent Democratic Alliance Republican Working Families Popular vote 585,466 534,869 Percentage 50.7% 46.3%

Results by Borough   Thompson—60-70%   Thompson—50-60%   Bloomberg—50-60%   Bloomberg—60-70%

Mayor before election Michael Bloomberg Republican Elected Mayor Michael Bloomberg Independent

The 2009 election for Mayor of New York City took place on Tuesday, November 3. The incumbent Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, an independent who left the Republican Party in 2008, won reelection on the Republican and Independence Party/Jobs & Education lines with 50.7% of the vote over the retiring City Comptroller, Bill Thompson, a Democrat (also endorsed by the Working Families Party), who won 46.3%.^[1] Thompson had won the Democratic primary election on September 15 with 71% of the vote over City Councilman Tony Avella and Roland Rogers.^[2] This was the fifth straight mayoral victory by Republican candidates in New York despite the city's strongly Democratic leaning in national and state elections.

Six other parties' candidates also contested the general election in November. Stephen Christopher of the Conservative Party of New York won 1.6% of the votes, more than the combined total of all the other minor candidates.^[1] The turnout of voters—fewer than 350,000 in September and fewer than 1.2 million in November—was relatively low for recent mayoral elections, and Bloomberg won with fewer votes than any successful mayoral candidate had received since women joined the city's electorate in 1917.

Prior to the election, the New York City Council had voted to extend the city's term limits, permitting Bloomberg (previously elected in 2001 and 2005) and other second-term officeholders such as Thompson to run for a third term.^[3] Attempts to put this decision to a popular referendum,^[3] to reverse it in the federal courts^[4] or to override it with state legislation were unsuccessful.

Background

New York City elected its Mayor by popular vote when Greater New York was formed in 1897, then in 1901, 1903, 1905 and every four years thereafter, as well as in the special elections of 1930 and 1950.

Nineteen of the 31 mayoral elections held between 1897 and 2005 were won by the official candidate of the Democratic Party, eight by the Republican Party's nominee, and four by others. (The last official Democratic candidate to win the mayoralty was David Dinkins in the election of 1989; the last candidate to win the mayoralty without winning either the Republican or the Democratic primary was Mayor John V. Lindsay, running for re-election on the Liberal column in 1969.)

Michael Bloomberg, formerly a Democrat, was elected as a Republican in 2001 and 2005, succeeding another Republican mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, elected in 1993 and 1997. Bloomberg left the Republican Party in 2008 and became a political independent.

By a hotly contested vote of 29–22 on October 23, 2008, the New York City Council extended the former two-term limit for Mayor, Council and other elected city offices to three terms, allowing Mayor Bloomberg to pursue his announced intention of seeking a third term in 2009.^[3] Legal challenges to the extension failed in Federal court,^[4] and a proposed law in the New York State Legislature to override the extension was not passed.

Bloomberg's most prominent opponent was Bill Thompson, who could (similarly) have run for a third term as New York City Comptroller in 2009, but instead sought and won the Democratic nomination for Mayor.

General election candidates

Democratic Party

Democratic Nominee Bill Thompson

• William C. Thompson, New York City Comptroller from January 2002 to December 2009.^[5] Bill Thompson was also the candidate of the Working Families Party.^[6]

Working Families Party

• The Working Families Party's candidate for mayor was the City Comptroller and Democratic nominee, William C. Thompson Jr.^[7]

Republican Party

Republican backed nominee Michael Bloomberg

Although changing his party affiliation from Republican to Independent in 2007, Bloomberg decided to run again as a Republican and was uncontested in the primary.^[8]

Independence Party

• Incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent who was the endorsed Independence Party candidate,^[9] as well as the successful Republican primary nominee and an unsuccessful seeker^[10] of the Working Families Party nomination.^[11] Since he belonged to no political party, Bloomberg used the nominal label of "independent–Jobs & Education", which was merged with the Independence Party's line on the general election ballot to read "Independence/Jobs & Education".

Conservative Party

• Stephen Christopher, a pastor at Memorial Baptist Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn, was unopposed for the nomination of the Conservative Party of New York.^[12][13]

Green Party

• Reverend Billy Talen – announced his mayoral candidacy under the Green Party banner in Union Square on March 1, 2009.^[14]

Libertarian Party

• Joseph Dobrian – 2005 Libertarian candidate for Manhattan Borough President, journalist and TV talk show host.^[15]

New Voice Party

• Tyrrell Eiland, an architect by training who builds green charter schools and founded the New Voice Party.^[13] Eiland also sought the nomination of the Independence Party.

Party for Socialism and Liberation

• Frances Villar – mother, student at Lehman College, activist on domestic and international issues.^[16]

Rent Is 2 Damn High

• Jimmy McMillan – war veteran and party candidate for Mayor in 2005, when he won 4,111 votes (0.3% of the total);^[17][18] also registered for the 2009 Democratic mayoral primary ballot.^[6]

Socialist Workers Party

• Dan Fein – 2005 Candidate for New York City Comptroller^[18][19][20]

Independents (no affiliation)

• Jonny Porkpie, the "Burlesque Mayor of NYC"^[21] Announced his candidacy on August 3, 2009,^[22] targeting "The Naked Cowboy" as his main opponent.^[23]
• John M. Finan, Chief Executive Officer, New York City Consulting Group LLC, and a candidate for the Libertarian Party's 2008 nomination for U.S. President.^[24]

Candidates who were unsuccessful, withdrew or declined to run

Democratic Party

• Tony Avella, current City Council-member representing District 19 in Queens^[6][25]
• Jimmy McMillan, also the candidate of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party in both 2005 and 2009.^[6][18] McMillan received 23 write-in votes in the 2009 Democratic mayoral primary.^[2]
• Roland Rogers^[6]
• Anthony Weiner, U.S. Representative, had announced that he was a candidate for mayor, but withdrew his candidacy on May 28, 2009 and endorsed Bill Thompson.

Republican Party

• Bruce Blakeman, attorney and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board Member, dropped out and endorsed Michael Bloomberg^[26]
• Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup, insisted he was never going to run and endorsed Michael Bloomberg^[27]

Independence Party

• Tyrrell L. Eiland, non-profit executive, green architectural designer, and author^[28] Eiland then ran as the candidate of the New Voice Party.^[13]

Independents (no affiliation)

• Naked Cowboy, Robert Burck^[29] Announced his candidacy on July 22, 2009^[30] and withdrew in early September, 2009^[31]

Primaries

Uncontested nominations

Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican and Independence Party nominations (which he had also won in 2001 and 2005), Thompson was unopposed for the Working Families Party nomination, and Stephen Christopher was unopposed for the Conservative Party nomination.^[12][13]

Democratic primary

Campaign

City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Councilman Tony Avella held their first televised debate on Wednesday, August 26, at the New York Public Library. They both directed more fire at Mayor Bloomberg than at each other. "After eight years of a Republican mayor who is focused on developers and the wealthy, I think New Yorkers are looking for change," said Thompson, while Avella declared that the "arrogance of billionaire Mike Bloomberg to think he's so important that he can overturn the term limits law, I think, is disgraceful."^[32] Another debate was held on September 9.^[33]

Primary election results

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

From the Board of Elections in the City of New York, September 26, 2009^[2]

2009 Democratic primary	Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total	%
William C. Thompson, Jr.	70,881	31,950	75,519	49,063	7,484	234,897	71.0%
	73.7%	73.5%	73.9%	63.2%	67.0%
Tony Avella	18,213	7,754	17,945	22,903	2,959	69,774	21.1%
	18.9%	17.8%	17.6%	29.5%	26.5%
Roland Rogers	6,975	3,751	8,612	5,553	700	25,591	7.7%
	7.3%	8.6%	8.4%	7.2%	6.3%
all Write-In votes	127	10	153	81	26	397	0.1%
	0.1%	0.02%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
T O T A L	96,196	43,465	102,229	77,600	11,169	330,659

Tony Avella, member of the New York City Council, representing a district in Queens. Out of the nearly 400 write-in votes, almost half or 184 (representing about one Democratic voter in 2,000) were some form or spelling of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.^[2]

Endorsements and public reception

In the final weeks of the campaign, Mayor Bloomberg was endorsed "enthusiastically" by the New York Times, which – while acknowledging Bill Thompson as a "worthy opponent" – praised Bloomberg for handling city matters "astonishingly well".^[34] Most other local newspapers had preceded the Times in endorsing the mayor,^[35] but many did so tepidly, presaging the misgivings of The New Yorker. In a report filed days before the election, the magazine likened Bloomberg to Marcus Licinius Crassus:^[36]

"The Mayor has ruled us well, but he has infantilized us. We are a little too much like Romans of Crassus' day, when the institutions of the old republic were giving way to a despotic (and competent) imperium.... If Bloomberg had been satisfied with two terms, he would be leaving office a beloved legend, a municipal god. He'll get his third, but we'll give it to him sullenly... The Pax Bloombergiana will endure a while longer. But then what? Will we have forgotten how to govern ourselves?"

— Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker

Polling

Post-primary match-up

Source	Date	Bloomberg (ind.-R-Indep'ce)	Thompson (D-Working Families)	Christopher (Conservative)
Nov. 3 results[1]	November 24, 2009	50.7%	46.3%	1.6%
SurveyUSA	October 30, 2009	53%	42%
Marist	October 30, 2009	53%	38%
Quinnipiac	October 26, 2009	53%	35%	3%
SurveyUSA	October 19, 2009	53%	41%
SurveyUSA	October 12, 2009	55%	38%
Daily News	October 6, 2009	51%	43%
Quinnipiac	September 24, 2009	52%	36%	2%
Marist	September 17, 2009	52%	43%

Pre-primary match-ups

Bloomberg vs. Thompson

Source	Date	Bloomberg (ind)	Thompson (D)
Quinnipiac	August 26, 2009	50%	35%
Quinnipiac	July 21, 2009	47%	37%
Marist	June 29, 2009	48%	35%
Quinnipiac	June 9, 2009	54%	32%
NY1	May 12, 2009	47%	31%
Marist	May 5, 2009	51%	33%
Quinnipiac	March 17, 2009	49%	35%
Quinnipiac	February 17, 2009	50%	33%
Quinnipiac	January 20, 2009	50%	34%
NY1	January 20, 2009	45%	32%

Bloomberg vs. Avella

Source	Date	Bloomberg (ind)	Avella (D)
Quinnipiac	July 21, 2009	51%	28%
Marist	June 29, 2009	53%	29%
Quinnipiac	June 9, 2009	57%	27%
Marist	May 5, 2009	52%	27%

Bloomberg approval ratings

The first table shows Bloomberg's approval ratings since June 2009. The other table shows whether or not people want a new mayor.

Source	Date	Approval Rating	Disapproval Rating
Quinnipiac	July 21, 2009	63%	29%
Quinnipiac	July 9, 2009	66%	27%
Marist	June 29, 2009	58%	40%

Source	Date	Bloomberg Deserves Reelection	Time for a New Mayor
Marist Poll	July 8, 2009	44%	51%

General election results

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

2009 General election	party	Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total	%
Bloomberg's margin over Mark Green (2001)		– 22,777	– 21,683	– 28,182	+ 46,904	+ 61,227	+ 35,489	+ 2.4%
change in Bloomberg's margin of victory, 2001–2005		+ 98,973	– 19,634	+ 97,622	+ 48,125	– 10,705	+ 214,381	+ 17.0%
Bloomberg's margin over Fernando Ferrer (2005)		+ 76,196	– 41,317	+ 69,440	+ 95,029	+ 50,522	+ 249,870	+ 19.4%
change in Bloomberg's margin of victory, 2005–2009		– 35,010	+ 6,268	– 91,392	– 59,742	– 19,397	– 199,273	– 15.0%
Bloomberg's margin over Bill Thompson (2009)		+ 41,186	– 35,049	– 21,952	+ 35,287	+ 31,125	+ 50,597	+ 4.4%
net change in Bloomberg's margin, 2001–2009		+ 63,963	– 13,366	+ 6,230	– 11,617	– 30,102	+ 15,108	+ 2.0%
Michael R. Bloomberg	Republican	102,903	42,066	117,706	126,569	46,149	435,393	37.7%
		35.9%	29.0%	34.6%	42.3%	55.4%
	Independence/Jobs & Education	56,934	11,730	36,033	36,364	9,012	150,073	13.0%
		19.9%	8.1%	10.6%	12.2%	10.8%
	Total	159,837	53,796	153,739	162,933	55,161	585,466	50.7%
		55.8%	37.0%	45.1%	54.5%	66.2%
William C. Thompson, Jr.	Democratic	110,975	86,899	163,230	122,935	22,956	506,995	43.9%
		38.7%	59.8%	47.9%	41.1%	27.5%
	Working Families Party	7,676	1,946	12,461	4,711	1,080	27,874	2.4%
		2.7%	1.3%	3.7%	1.6%	1.3%
	Total	118,651	88,845	175,691	127,646	24,036	534,869	46.3%
		41.4%	61.2%	51.6%	42.7%	28.8%
Stephen Christopher	Conservative	2,217	1,480	5,690	5,267	3,359	18,013	1.6%
		0.8%	1.0%	1.7%	1.8%	4.0%
Billy Talen	Green	3,083	434	3,338	1,680	367	8,902	0.8%
		1.1%	0.3%	1.0%	0.6%	0.4%
Jimmy McMillan	Rent Is Too High	823	217	764	404	124	2,332	0.2%
Francisca Villar	Socialism & Liberation	674	253	577	420	72	1,996	0.2%
Joseph Dobrian	Libertarian	556	104	413	388	155	1,616	0.1%
Dan Fein	Socialist Workers	493	120	376	263	59	1,311	0.1%
Write-ins †		100	30	77	60	30	297	.03%
Total recorded votes		286,434	145,279	340,665	299,061	83,363	1,154,802	100.00%
unrecorded ballots		5,172	3,659	6,645	6,254	1,525	23,255
Total ballots cast		291,606	148,938	347,310	305,315	84,888	1,178,057
†The three candidates who received more than 7 write-in votes each were C. Montgomery Burns (Homer Simpson's fictional boss), 27; City Councilman Tony Avella (who lost the Democratic mayoral primary), 13; and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (Republican), 11.
Source: Board of Elections in the City of New York, November 24, 2009[1]

See also

• New York City Public Advocate election, 2009
• New York City Comptroller election, 2009
• New York City mayoral election, 2013
• New York City mayoral election, 2005
• New York City mayoral election, 2001
• New York City mayoral elections

References

1. Board of Elections in the City of New York, Statement and Return Report for Certification General Election 2009 – 11/03/2009 Crossover – All Parties and Independent Bodies Mayor Citywide (PDF), November 24, 2009, retrieved on November 27, 2009
2. Board of Elections in the City of New York, Statement and Return Report for Certification Primary Election 2009 – 09/15/2009 Crossover – Democratic Party Democratic Mayor Citywide (PDF), September 25–26, 2009, retrieved on October 21, 2009
3. Sewell Chan and Jonathan P. Hicks, Council Votes, 29 to 22, to Extend Term Limits, The New York Times, published on-line and retrieved on October 23, 2008
4. Fernanda Santos: The Future of Term Limits Is in Court, The New York Times, New York edition, October 24, 2008, page A24 (retrieved on October 24, 2008), Judge Rejects Suit Over Term Limits, The New York Times, New York edition, January 14, 2009, page A26, and Appeals Court Upholds Term Limits Revision, The New York Times City Room Blog, April 28, 2009 (both retrieved on July 6, 2009). The original January decision by Judge Charles Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) was upheld by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Vermont, Connecticut and New York state).
5. New Yorkers for Bill Thompson
6. Elections Board in the City of New York: The Contest List, Primary Election 2009, as published and retrieved on July 28, 2009
7. "New York - Working Families". Working Families. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
8. "Bloomberg will run as Republican in bid for third term". Daily News. New York. April 11, 2009.
9. Santos, Fernanda (April 5, 2009). "Bloomberg Is Endorsed by Independence Party". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
10. "New York - Working Families". Working Families. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
11. "Mike Working Key Labor Party", New York Daily News, April 13, 2009, retrieved April 2009
12. The New York Post, New York – Summary Vote Results Mayor-NYC – Citywide – Dem Primary, published and retrieved on September 16, 2009
13. Emily S. Rebb, "Seven Others Striving to Win the Mayor's Job", The New York Times, published on line October 13, 2009, retrieved October 14, 2009
14. Reverend Billy Announces NYC Green Party Mayoral Bid – Hosannah! Say 'Church of Life After Shopping' Supporters
15. "Our Campaigns - NYC Mayor - LBT Convention Race - Apr 09, 2013". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
16. Frances Villar campaign web site
17. "McMillan 09". Archived from the original on 3 May 2008.
18. Board of Elections in the City of New York 2005 General Election official results
19. "Our Campaigns - Candidate - Daniel B. Fein". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
20. "The Militant - March 9, 2009 -- SWP mayoral candidate: 'Oppose New York cuts'". www.themilitant.com. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
21. Jonny Porkpie Lives in Mary Carey's Shadow. New York Press (August 6, 2009).
22. JonnyPorkpie.com
23. Jonnie Porkpie, New York's "Mayor of Burlesque," Wants To Be New York's "Mayor of New York". The L Magazine (August 6, 2009)
24. "Index of /". www.johnmfinan.com. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
25. Tony Avella for Mayor
26. "mayorblakeman2009.com". www.mayorblakeman2009.com. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
27. Stop Parsing Parsons: I’m No Mayor, Let Bloomberg keep the job!
28. "Westchester Native Tyrrell Eiland Makes Run for NYC Mayor" (PDF). The Westchester Crusader. February 20, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 March 2009.
29. "Naked Cowboy" Wants To Be Mayor of New York City. Associated Press (July 21, 2009).
30. Naked Cowboy for Mayor
31. Naked Cowboy Suspends Mayoral Campaign
32. Adam Lisberg, "Debaters take aim at Mike", New York Daily News, Thursday, August 27, 2009, page 17, and "Bill Thompson and Tony Avella square off, gang up on Mayor Bloomberg in 1st debate", Daily News web-site, Thursday, August 27, 2009, 4:00 AM, retrieved on September 1, 2009
33. Barbaro, Michael (2009-09-10). "In Mayoral Debate, Heated Words (and Some Gaffes)". The New York Times. p. A38. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
34. "For Mayor of New York City". New York Times. Editorial (NYC, NY). 23 October 2009.
35. Katz, Celeste. "Thompson 2; Bloomberg, 24". New York Daily News. (NYC, NY). 3 September 2009.
36. Hertzberg, Hendrik. "Biggus Buckus". The New Yorker. (NYC, NY). 9 November 2009.

External links

• 2009 New York City Mayor General Election: William Thompson (D) vs Mayor Michael Bloomberg (i) chart of aggregated poll results from Pollster.com