Democrat Bill de Blasio Projected to Win NYC Mayoral Race

A majority of voters said in exit polls Tuesday that they made up their minds before October.

Bill de Blasio, an unabashedly liberal Brooklynite who tapped frustrations over the city’s yawning income gap and aggressive police tactics, is projected to defeat Republican Joseph Lhota to become New York’s first Democratic mayor in two decades and the face of the city as it moves past the 12-year reign of Michael Bloomberg.

De Blasio, who just a few months ago was running fourth in the Democratic primary, capped an extraordinary run in which he consistently pushed all the right political buttons, soundly beating many of the city’s most seasoned politicians.

He exploited the unease of New Yorkers who felt left out of the city’s financial wealth, and its booming real estate market. He promised to curtail police stop-and-frisks just as a backlash against the tactic was flourishing. And he deftly played upon New Yorkers’ fatigue with Bloomberg without alienating those who approved of his performance.

He did all of this while appearing like a nice, regular guy, an image enhanced by his photogenic mixed-race family, whom he featured in television ads and brought out on the campaign trail.

De Blasio’s campaign was so effective that in the final weeks of the race, the question was not whether he would beat Lhota, but by how much.

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