Nov 4, 2009 10:41 am US/Eastern
NYC Gives Bloomberg 4 More Years, Barely
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Gets His Wish, Wins Third Term
Margin Of Victory Smaller Than Expected, Despite Record Spending
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exits a voting booth November 3, 2009 in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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New York City's 2009 Mayoral Candidates, Michael Bloomberg (left) and William Thompson
CBS
Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent record money to convince New Yorkers to vote him back into office for a third term, and the spending spree paid off, barely. The billionaire mayor beat out Democratic challenger Bill Thompson in an extremely close race to keep his seat in City Hall.
"The voters have spoken and now it's up to us to deliver," he said. "I know we can and I know we will."
Polls had shown Bloomberg led Thompson by a comfortable margin, but that margin shrunk recently leaving some to wonder whether New Yorkers were ready for a change.
Still, pundits expected Bloomberg to walk away with a clear victory. As results came in though, Thompson incredibly narrowed the margin, leaving some to wonder whether he'd pull off the upset. Final results show Bloomberg accounting for about 51 percent of the votes, compared to Thompson's 46 percent.
After all 6,110 precincts reported returns, Bloomberg had walked away with a victory by just 50,342 votes.
"We reached out to Chinese, Russian, Korean, Indian, Pakistani and we looked at those numbers and we said, 'You know what? There could be another 13,000 Russian votes brought out, another 20,000 Chinese votes, another 11,000 Indian votes and we ran a campaign essentially in every community in the city," said Bradley Tusk, Bloomberg's campaign manager.
More than 2,500 people turned up for Bloomberg's party to show their belief that he was still the man meant to run the city.
"I honestly think Mr. Bloomberg has improved a whole lot since the first time he ran," said Jane Alexander-Ditmars Park of Brooklyn.
Bloomberg spent more than $100 million on the most expensive self-financed campaign in U.S. history. Four years ago he spent $85 during his re-election campaign, and he spent $74 million on his first bid for office in 2004.
"It was a five borough campaign, we had over 475 endorsements, 63 newspapers, 42 unions, so you name it, we did it. We worked incredibly hard," said Tusk.
But with Bloomberg spending so much more money, one can only wonder how he feels about squeaking out such a narrow victory.
"I think you feel that you've probably spent some of your money unwisely," said Professor David Birdsell of Baruch College. "For the Thompson campaign which had been lagging so far behind to be able to close it that tightly in the final analysis was a surprise to many people and really poses some questions for Michael Bloomberg about exactly how he's going to govern in his third term."
Thompson relied on donations and matching funds for his mayoral bid and probably spent about one-tenth of Bloomberg's total. Bloomberg's margin of victory was far smaller than his nearly 20-point blowout in 2005.
Bloomberg has already promised a staff shakeup upon a victorious campaign. The billionaire former CEO has said he'll get rid of a number of commissioners -- even the ones he considers successful. He said elected officials who win third terms try too often to do the same thing with the same people.
Bloomberg would not say who is likely to get the ax, but said replacing 15 out of 40 commissioners is not unreasonable. Some of those might include spots that have already turned over in the last year.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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