De Blasios celebrate with ‘Smackdown’ dance
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Bill de Blasio celebrates with his family at the Park Slope Armory.
Photo: Chad Rachman
New Yorkers handed Bill de Blasio a landslide mandate in his bid to take the city in a sharply different direction after 20 years of Republican mayors.
The victory was never in doubt — the Democrat was projected to be the 109th mayor barely a minute after voting closed, with exit polls showing him beating Republican Joe Lhota across virtually all political, ideological and ethnic lines.
The public advocate and former councilman held a commanding 74-24 percent lead with 88 percent of the votes counted.
“Make no mistake — the people of this city have chosen a progressive path,” de Blasio, his family at his side, declared at a packed victory party inside the Park Slope Armory.
He added that voters had chosen to alter paths from the Bloomberg era, “united by a belief that our city should leave no New Yorker behind.”
To emphasize his progressive message, de Blasio walked onto the stage to the pop song “Royals.”
The No. 1 hit, by the 16-year-old singer Lorde, has a strong message of class consciousness that many listeners took to be a slap at the current billionaire mayor, if not all wealthy New Yorkers, upon whom de Blasio has vowed to raise taxes.
“And we’ll never be royals/It don’t run in our blood/That kind of lux just ain’t for us/We crave a different kind of buzz,” goes the chorus to the song.
He later celebrated with a victory dance (of sorts) dubbed ‘The Smackdown’ with this family. The de Blasios have whipped out the boogie routine several times before, including on winning the Democratic primary and at the September West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn.
Lhota, who never gained traction in his underdog campaign, conceded 45 minutes after the polls closed.
“It was a good fight and it was a fight worth having,” the Republican told supporters at the Gansevoort Park Hotel on Park Avenue South.
“The road was difficult right from the outset,” he added, in the understatement of the night.
Exit polls showed 65 percent of voters made their pick for mayor before October. And 40 percent said their decisions were locked in even before the party primaries on Sept. 10.
What should have been Lhota’s strong suits — his managerial experience, his support for the NYPD and fears about rising crime — didn’t resonate with voters.
With murders here at an all-time low, only 15 percent said crime was the most important issue in the race, the exit polls showed.
Voters ranked experience last on their priorities in a new mayor. Lhota has a long resume covering city and state government as well as the private sector.
Political allies cheered the biggest Democratic mayoral victory since Ed Koch’s 68-point blowout re-election in 1985.
“Tonight is a night for celebration,” proclaimed Hector Figueroa, president of the building workers union, 32BJ SEIU. “It is one of the most hopeful moments for working families in New York City in many years.”
Another sign of the shift in the political landscape were the warm words quickly issued from some of the potential targets of a de Blasio administration.
“His message of uniting all New Yorkers clearly resonated with voters,” said New York City Charter School Center CEO James Merriman, one of the first to congratulate de Blasio via an e-mailed press release.
The new mayor had vowed to not to follow Mayor Bloomberg’s support for charter school expansion.
Merriman said his group stood “ready and willing to work with the next administration and our district counterparts to promote policies that help public schools, both district and charter, to flourish.”
The victory was never in doubt — the Democrat was projected to be the 109th mayor barely a minute after voting closed, with exit polls showing him beating Republican Joe Lhota across virtually all political, ideological and ethnic lines.
The public advocate and former councilman held a commanding 74-24 percent lead with 88 percent of the votes counted.
“Make no mistake — the people of this city have chosen a progressive path,” de Blasio, his family at his side, declared at a packed victory party inside the Park Slope Armory.
He added that voters had chosen to alter paths from the Bloomberg era, “united by a belief that our city should leave no New Yorker behind.”
To emphasize his progressive message, de Blasio walked onto the stage to the pop song “Royals.”
The No. 1 hit, by the 16-year-old singer Lorde, has a strong message of class consciousness that many listeners took to be a slap at the current billionaire mayor, if not all wealthy New Yorkers, upon whom de Blasio has vowed to raise taxes.
“And we’ll never be royals/It don’t run in our blood/That kind of lux just ain’t for us/We crave a different kind of buzz,” goes the chorus to the song.
He later celebrated with a victory dance (of sorts) dubbed ‘The Smackdown’ with this family. The de Blasios have whipped out the boogie routine several times before, including on winning the Democratic primary and at the September West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn.
Lhota, who never gained traction in his underdog campaign, conceded 45 minutes after the polls closed.
“It was a good fight and it was a fight worth having,” the Republican told supporters at the Gansevoort Park Hotel on Park Avenue South.
“The road was difficult right from the outset,” he added, in the understatement of the night.
Exit polls showed 65 percent of voters made their pick for mayor before October. And 40 percent said their decisions were locked in even before the party primaries on Sept. 10.
What should have been Lhota’s strong suits — his managerial experience, his support for the NYPD and fears about rising crime — didn’t resonate with voters.
With murders here at an all-time low, only 15 percent said crime was the most important issue in the race, the exit polls showed.
Voters ranked experience last on their priorities in a new mayor. Lhota has a long resume covering city and state government as well as the private sector.
Political allies cheered the biggest Democratic mayoral victory since Ed Koch’s 68-point blowout re-election in 1985.
“Tonight is a night for celebration,” proclaimed Hector Figueroa, president of the building workers union, 32BJ SEIU. “It is one of the most hopeful moments for working families in New York City in many years.”
Another sign of the shift in the political landscape were the warm words quickly issued from some of the potential targets of a de Blasio administration.
“His message of uniting all New Yorkers clearly resonated with voters,” said New York City Charter School Center CEO James Merriman, one of the first to congratulate de Blasio via an e-mailed press release.
The new mayor had vowed to not to follow Mayor Bloomberg’s support for charter school expansion.
Merriman said his group stood “ready and willing to work with the next administration and our district counterparts to promote policies that help public schools, both district and charter, to flourish.”
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