Ok Letitia James wins Dem Nom. for Public Advocate but only 185,000 Dems out of 3 million Dems vote.

[hrmjustin]

Letitia James wins NYC Public Advocate Democratic runoff



AP By JONATHAN LEMIRE

NEW YORK -- Councilwoman Letitia James won the Democratic public advocate runoff on Tuesday, becoming the party's nominee and all but assuring she will become the city's elected watchdog.

James defeated state Sen. Daniel Squadron in incomplete and unofficial returns and faces a general election next month without a Republican opponent.

James and Squadron were the top two finishers in the Sept. 10 primary, but neither eclipsed the 40 percent threshold that would have avoided the costly runoff. The winners of the higher-profile mayoral and comptroller primary contests stayed above that mark, meaning the race to fill the little-understood public advocate position was the only one on the ballot.

The public advocate position has little real power and an annual budget of just $2.1 million, a small fraction of the $13 million it cost the city to hold the runoff, which was required by law.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/politics&id=9268206

Second source

NYDN Daily Politics ?@DNDailyPolitics 15m

With 99% of precincts reporting via AP: 110,678 Letitia James; 74,610 Daniel Squadron. 59.7% - 40.3%. That's 185,288 votes.

[dlwickham]

1. turn out for run-off elections are always low

[hrmjustin]

3. True but this looks like it was the lowest city wide dem primary in many years.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. I'm a happy man. She's *great*... and perfectly suited for that job. n/t

[hrmjustin]

4. I agree. I just wish that Squadron just concede three weeks ago so we did not spend 12 million

on the election day workers and machines. She won both primaries.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Well ... he came in a pretty close second last time so I can't fault him for that.

Other places... places with more rational governance.... avoid the money wasted by the runoff by having people vote for candidates in order of preference in the FIRST round. Someone's bound to clear 40% that way.

[hrmjustin]

6. I think we should do away with the 40% rule altogether.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Problem w. that is you might have 4 candidates w. the same basic philosophy...

...divvying up, say.... 80% of the votes and then one candidate who's completely nuts winning the election w. 21% of the total vote cast.

Not exactly an expression of the public will.

[hrmjustin]

9. Good point.

[hrmjustin]

7. Here is a map.

Ben Max - DecideNYC ?@TweetBenMax

99% in. Quite a map. Check it, via @datanews http://t.co/Jpw1EBfZsF