One week after Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 51 to 46 percent victory over Democrat Bill Thompson in the mayoral race, it’s back to business as usual for the Mayor. However, the somewhat surprising slim margin of victory and what it could mean for Bloomberg’s third term is still up in the air.
“That was as close to a mandate as I think you can possibly come in a very difficult time,” Bloomberg said the day after his election victory. “I don’t think the margin of victory was narrow. I’m just honored that … the majority of the people in this city said, ‘Keep up the hard work. Do what you think is right.’”
However, Michael Krasner, an associate professor of political science at Queens College, believes that a combination of the slim margin of victory and the new blood in the City Council will force Bloomberg to adjust his approach.
“The Mayor is going to have to be a lot more conciliatory than he has in the past,” Krasner.
In addition, Krasner said he expects Comptroller-elect John Liu and Public Advocate-elect Bill de Blasio to provide much more vocal criticism of Bloomberg during his third term – in part, because both politicians have future mayoral aspirations.
Another position that could greatly affect Bloomberg’s third term is the Speaker of the City Council. There have been rumblings that current Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is widely considered a strong ally for Bloomberg, could be in some trouble of retaining her post.
“In a certain way, she is in the same position that Bloomberg is in,” Krasner said. “She is going to have to accommodate more interests than in the past and promise a more aggressive position against the mayor than in the past.”
Meanwhile, in Queens, nearly 275,000 people came out to vote in the mayoral race in the borough’s 18 Assembly Districts. While Bloomberg received 154,127 of those votes to Thompson’s 120,754 votes in Queens – a closer look at votes in different Assembly Districts showed that many of the neighborhoods were decidedly either for Bloomberg or Thompson with only a few neighborhoods showing close margins.
Bloomberg recorded sweeping victories in almost every area of northeast and central Queens. In Assembly District 26, which is made up of Bayside and Bay Terrace, 19,429 voters chose Bloomberg compared to only 5,998 who cast their vote for Thompson. Bloomberg also defeated Thompson by two to one margins in Douglaston/Bellerose, Flushing/Whitestone, and South Flushing/College Point. In District 28, which encompasses Forest Hills and Forest Park, Bloomberg got three times the amount of votes as Thompson, 15,309 to 5,173.
However, in many communities in the southern part of the borough, the results were almost the exact opposite. In District 32, which includes Jamaica Estates and Rochdale, voters cast 10,551 votes for Thompson compared to a lowly 2,700 for Bloomberg. Thompson won by nearly three to one margins in Rosedale/Queens Village, and South Ozone Park/Laurelton and a two to one margin in Cambria Heights and St. Albans.
Krasner said that it appeared that Bloomberg did better in the mostly white and middle class neighborhoods whereas Thompson prevailed in more African-American populated districts. He did criticize the Thompson campaign for not making the foreclosure crisis, which has devastated parts of southeastern Queens, a bigger issue.
Of the 18 Assembly Districts in Queens, only District 35, which includes parts of Corona and Woodside, and District 39, which includes parts of Corona and Jackson Heights, saw margins under 2,000 votes. These two districts had a difference of 300 votes.
