De Blasio in Position to Win Mayor’s Race by Historic Margin, Poll Shows

[brooklynite]

Last edited Mon Oct 28, 2013, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: New York Times

Bill de Blasio is poised to win the race for mayor of New York City by a historically large margin, powered by optimism that he will bring about change and by overwhelming voter disapproval of the Republican Party.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who is currently the public advocate, leads his Republican opponent, Joseph J. Lhota, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, by 45 points among likely voters, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. That lead, which has remained remarkably consistent in multiple polls over the last six weeks, suggests that Mr. de Blasio could win the most sweeping victory in a mayor’s race since 1985, when Edward I. Koch was re-elected to a third term with a crushing 68-point margin of victory over his opponents.

Mr. de Blasio’s overwhelming lead in poll after poll has sent students of local politics scrambling for the history books. Although Mr. de Blasio is unlikely to surpass Mr. Koch’s re-election margin, he is flirting with a record win for a non-incumbent; that record is currently held by Abraham D. Beame, who won election in 1973 with a 40-point victory margin, the largest in an open race since five-borough elections began in 1897.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/nyregion/de-blasio-in-position-to-win-mayors-race-by-historic-margin-poll-shows.html?hp&_r=0

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Dubious precedents , both.

>>> when Edward I. Koch was re-elected to a third term with a crushing 68-point margin of victory over his opponents. >>>>

Most corrupt 4 years in NYC history. Read "City for Sale" by Jack Newfield.

And, ex city comptroller Beame... who ran for mayor as a fiscal genius.... oversaw the financial catastrophe of the mid-70s.

De Blasio will win by a blow out in any case. He'd be smart to return the millions of $$$ in cash that have been flooding in since the post primary polls announced his inevitability.

Anyone sending cash at this point is trying to buy influence, period.

[zipplewrath]

3. Tammany Hall

Most corrupt 4 years in NYC history.

Kinda hard to believe, considering the Tammany Hall years.

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. How DARE you disagree w. me!

I'm going to alert on this post!

Ok, ok.... I'll qualify: "in modern times."

Lots of people didn't notice 'cause the corporate media loved Koch and Koch did schtick effectively, but he was a lousy, 'look the other way' mayor w. a lot of lousy ideas and attitudes rattling around in his head.

[zipplewrath]

7. Never understood

I really never understood why he was so popular. Always thought it musta been a "New York" thing or something.

[oberliner]

2. Crazier still to think how low he was polling in the primary initially

Until the nonsense with Anthony, no one really gave him a chance. He was in the low single digits for a while.

[thesquanderer]

4. It took people a while to realize...

...that the candidate with the best name recognition (Quinn) would have been the closest thing to a fourth Bloomberg term. And I think Bloomberg was less popular at the end of the long campaign than he was at the beginning. (Possibly due, to some extent, to the mayoral campaign itself.)

[oberliner]

5. What about Bill Thompson?

I would have thought he would have had a better showing.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Insider. Clocked-in and out for eight years as comptroller.

Politicians and TPTB... including city contractors... pushed Bill. Keep things as they are; it's working for us.

However... I think the average voter is getting sick of that shit.

If they aren't, they OUGHT to be.

[geek tragedy]

10. Weiner highlighted the need for someone to represent the outer boroughs

and pursue less Bloombergian policies.

People said: "if only Weiner weren't such a complete fuck up, I'd consider voting for him."

Others said: "Have you checked out Bill Deblasio?"

[DonViejo]

9. Would I be considered rude if I asked...

for a link to the article in this OP?

[Buddha_of_Wisdom]

11. ahh no.

And I agree. "Link to source" isn't exactly what I'm looking for

[oberliner]

14. I think this is it

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/nyregion/de-blasio-in-position-to-win-mayors-race-by-historic-margin-poll-shows.html

[Beacool]

12. Good!

Although i'm not worry about NYC, he has it in the bag. I'm far more concerned about the outcome in VA. McAuliffe is ahead, but not by much. I hope that people go out to vote.

[StevieM]

18. Hey Bea!! I think we are going to win the Governor and Lt. Governor's races in Virginia

by decisive margins. The Attorney General's race is the one that is competitive. (Ironically, Rachel Maddow is doing a piece on this as I am writing).

Bea, are you getting psyched for 2016? Do you think we'll be lucky enough to run against Rand Paul?

[Beacool]

19. Hi Stevie, how are you?

I hope that McAuliffe wins because the Cooch is bad news. I didn't know about the Attorney General's race, good luck with that one too.

As for 2016, it's still 3 years away and anything can happen in the interim. I don't want to jinx it. I don't know whether Paul will be their nominee, but it'll probably be a Tea Party guy. The base thinks that they lost in 2008 and 2012 because they chose "moderates".

[gopiscrap]

13. Excellent!!!

[KamaAina]

15. Just got back from NYC last week

Lhota (R-Losing By 40 Points) is running cartoonish attack ads that claim that NYC will return to the crime-ridden '70s the minute de Blasio ends stop-and-frisk.

Meanwhile, across the Hudson, Steve Lonegan (R-Lost Bigtime) tried to associate Sen. Booker not only with President Obama but with former Newark mayor Sharpe James, who -- you guessed it -- is also African American. You stay classy, Steve.

[NCagainstMcCrony]

16. Lock this thread

Please lock this thread as it cites a non credible news source.
In case DU has forgotten the NYT helped lie us into Iraq and sat on the Bush wiretap story for 2 years through a presidential election no less.

[brooklynite]

17. If it'll make you feel better...

If De Blasio is too corporatist for you (the Times andorsed him on Sunday), there's a Socialist Worker's candidate for you to support...

[True Blue Door]

20. I'm not a New Yorker, but I like what I hear from De Blasio.

Still, I can't help but feel a sense of foreboding that even if he wins with a huge mandate, he would be set up to fail by inheriting Bloomberg's problems without the personal resources Bloomberg could bring to bear in keeping them in check.

There's also the mess that is Bloomberg's NYPD. He has turned it into a more effective force, but only by basically repealing the 4th Amendment in New York City and giving them free reign to engage in racial profiling without limit. So what De Blasio would inherit if he becomes Mayor is like Singapore - more or less safe, but far from free or equal. And correcting circumstances like that involves institutional changes that have immediate negative consequences while the benefits take time to realize.

Unless he's some kind of visionary super-politician, most people who get put in a position to correct inequality and injustice end up being sabotaged in office by these factors.

Again, not a New Yorker, but what I've seen of what's become of the city tells me it needs a kind of class-oriented Mandela figure - a unifier who can convince the elites to go along with him in reducing their own power for mutual community benefit.

I hate how Byzantine politics has become in this country, but it seems like reformers have to be both inhumanly honest and inhumanly cunning at the same time to accomplish anything. Whereas crooks can just passively ride the wave of degradation without any special talent and still achieve their ugly goals.

Good luck to New York in trying to reunify your city.