Bill de Blasio – who needs 40% of the vote to avoid a runoff with Thompson – celebrates with his family. Photograph: Kathy Willens/AP
Bill de Blasio, the unabashed progressive who lit up the New Yorkmayoral campaign, faced a nervous wait to find out whether he would be the Democratic candidate on Wednesday as he hovered around the 40% needed to win the nomination outright.
A pledge by second-placed Bill Thompson to wait for the official totals mean it could be days before De Blasio finds out if he will run against Joe Lhota, who secured the Republican nomination.
But while the precise result may still be in the balance but the message from New York Democrats could not be more clear. The battle to succeed Michael Bloomberg as the next mayor of the biggest city in theUnited States will be an ideological fight led by a candidate determined to distance himself as far as possible from the billionaire incumbent.
Christine Quinn, the city council leader and Bloomberg ally who started the race as frontrunner, bowed out in a dismal third place with only 15% of the vote, her hopes to break ground as the first woman and first gay mayor dashed.
The final result will not be known until next week at the earliest: New York's 1960s lever-pull voting machines will not be opened until Friday, and 19,000 paper ballots not due to be counted until Monday. If the result is still close – and New York's Board of Elections is notoriously inefficient – Thompson could demand a recount. He declined to concede the race on Wednesday, vowing to wait until the official result.
Thompson told supporters on Tuesday night that he would wait for the official count instead of conceding defeat. "We took Mike Bloomberg on and we almost beat him. Now we're gonna finish what we started," said Thompson, who was the Democratic nominee in 2009 but lost to the incumbent billionaire.
"Every voice in New York City counts and we're gonna wait for every voice to be heard. We're gonna wait for every vote to be counted. So my friends this is far from over."
According to tallies collated by WNYC radio, Thompson had 26.10% of the vote on Wednesday morning, with Quinn in third place on 15.47%. Anthony Weiner, who had also looked strong earlier in the campaign, suffered the ignominy of a fifth-place finish with just 4.91% of the vote. After a tear-filled concession speech, in which his wife Huma Abedin was notable by her absence, Weiner made an inglorious exit: a picture showed him giving a one-fingered gesture of insult to reporters as he was driven away.
Read More…. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/bill-de-blasio-democratic-nomination-new-york-mayor
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