2009 New York City mayoral election


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, who won 46.3%. Thompson had won the Democratic primary election on September 15 with 71% of the vote over City Councilman Tony Avella and Roland Rogers. 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. 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 and other second-term officeholders such as Thompson to run for a third term. Attempts to put this decision to a popular referendum, to reverse it in the federal courts 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.
Michael Bloomberg, formerly a Democrat, was elected as a Republican in 2001 and 2005, succeeding another Republican mayor, Rudy 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. Legal challenges to the extension failed in Federal court, 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 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 Party

Uncontested nominations

Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican and Independence Party nominations, Thompson was unopposed for the Working Families Party nomination, and Stephen Christopher was unopposed for the Conservative Party nomination.

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." Another debate was held on September 9.

Primary election results

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
From the Board of Elections in the City of New York, September 26, 2009
2009 Democratic primaryManhattanThe BronxBrooklynQueensStaten IslandTotal%
Bill Thompson70,88131,95075,51949,0637,484234,89771.0%
Bill Thompson73.7%73.5%73.9%63.2%67.0%234,89771.0%
Tony Avella18,2137,75417,94522,9032,95969,77421.1%
Tony Avella18.9%17.8%17.6%29.5%26.5%69,77421.1%
Roland Rogers6,9753,7518,6125,55370025,5917.7%
Roland Rogers7.3%8.6%8.4%7.2%6.3%25,5917.7%
all write-in votes1271015381263970.1%
all write-in votes0.1%0.02%0.1%0.1%0.2%3970.1%
T O T A L96,19643,465102,22977,60011,169330,659

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 were some form or spelling of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

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". Most other local newspapers had preceded the Times in endorsing the mayor, 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:

Polling

Post-primary match-up

Pre-primary match-ups

Bloomberg vs. Thompson

Bloomberg vs. Avella

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.
SourceDateApproval ratingDisapproval rating
July 21, 200963%29%
July 9, 200966%27%
June 29, 200958%40%

General election results

Tuesday, November 3, 2009