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 Borough results State Assembly resultsde Blasio: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Zablocki: 50–60% | ||||||||||||||||
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The2009New York City Public Advocateelection took place on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, along with elections for themayor, thecity comptroller,borough presidents, and members of theNew York City Council. TheDemocratic candidate,Bill de Blasio, won election with 77% of the vote against 18% for theRepublican nominee,Alex Zablocki, 3.6% for theConservative nominee, William Lee, and 1.7% for two others.[1]
The public advocate has the formal role of presiding over meetings of theNew York City Council (although the Speaker elected by the Council itself now does much of this work), and, until the next election, would serve as acting Mayor whenever the elected Mayor is unable to serve.
This election has drawn significant interest from politicians looking to advance their careers, as theextension of New York City term limits allows more incumbents to seek reelection.[2]
Despite theextension of term limits in late 2008, the outgoing public advocate,Betsy Gotbaum announced that she would not run for reelection.[3]
Candidates includedCouncilmanEric Gioia of Queens, who has raised $2.5 million for the campaign;Norman Siegel, the civil liberties lawyer who lost in a runoff to Gotbaum in 2001; former public advocateMark Green, and CouncilmanBill de Blasio of Brooklyn.
After acknowledging he was considering the race in December 2008,[4] Green announced on February 10, 2009, that he would again run for the office.[5][6] Green was Gotbaum's predecessor as public advocate and the first person to hold this title. His entry changed the landscape of the race, due to his name recognition and ability to raise money.[7]
CouncilmanJohn Liu, also from Queens, had been considered a potential candidate for advocate, but he ran for and won the office ofNew York City Comptroller—an office uncontested by the current city comptroller,Bill Thompson, who preferred to seek election as mayor in 2009.[8] CouncilwomanJessica Lappin andGuillermo Linares, a former councilman and current commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, were also considering a run[2]AssemblymanAdam Clayton Powell IV was also considered a potential candidate.[7] Lappin decided not to run.[9]Imtiaz S. Syed, a lawyer, economist, investigative accountant, banker, administrator and management consultant, also ran.[10]
On September 15, 2009, de Blasio won 32.6% of the Democratic primary vote and Green 31.5%. (Most of the remaining 36% of the primary voters cast their ballots for Gioia or Siegel.) Neither de Blasio nor Green won enough votes (40%) to avoid a run-off primary election between them two weeks later.
On September 29, Bill de Blasio won that run-off election by 62.4% to 37.6% for Mark Green. Turnout was very light, about 220,000 or 10% of the eligible voters, according to TheAssociated Press. (In the same run-off election, John Liu led his fellow City CouncilmanDavid Yassky, of Brooklyn, for the Democratic nomination forNew York City Comptroller by 56% to 44% of a similar turnout.)[11]
| No. | Date | Host | Moderator | Link | Democratic | Democratic | Democratic | Democratic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key: P Participant A Absent N Not invited I Invited W Withdrawn | ||||||||
| Bill de Blasio | Eric Gioia | Mark Green | Norman Siegel | |||||
| 1 | Aug. 23, 2009 | 1010 WINS League of Women Voters of New York City New York City Campaign Finance Board WABC-TV WXTV-DT | Diana Williams | YouTube | P | P | P | P |
| 2 | Sep. 9, 2009 | Citizens Union New York One New York One Noticias New York Daily News New York City Campaign Finance Board Time Warner Cable WNYC-FM | Dominic Carter | YouTube | P | P | P | P |
| No. | Date | Host | Moderator | Link | Democratic | Democratic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key: P Participant A Absent N Not invited I Invited W Withdrawn | ||||||
| Bill de Blasio | Mark Green | |||||
| 1 | Sep. 23, 2009 | New York One New York One Noticias New York Daily News New York City Campaign Finance Board Time Warner Cable WNYC-FM | Dominic Carter | YouTube | P | P |
Alex Zablocki, an aide to State SenatorAndrew Lanza ofStaten Island, declared his candidacy. At 26 years old, Zablocki was the youngest candidate to run for public advocate.[citation needed]
Gotbaum set up meetings with each of her potential successors in order to help them understand the position.[12] On March 30, 2009, Alex Zablocki, Republican candidate for public advocate, met with Gotbaum in her office for about an hour to discuss the importance of the office and afterwards thanked her for her service.[13]
On March 10,Fordham Law School hosted atown hall meeting with Gioia, Siegel, de Blasio and Green.[14] Zablocki was not invited, which he considered an "outrage". The organizer said that he believed students wanted to see the Democratic contenders first, and wished to set up a debate including Zablocki in the future.
De Blasio was endorsed byThe New York Times,[15] theWorking Families Party, and over 150 elected officials and organizations.[16][17] Gioia was endorsed by various labor unions, including Local One of theStagehands, theSergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) and the Captains Endowment Association (CEA).[18][19] Alex Zablocki was endorsed by all five Republican county organizations in New York City,[20] led by his home borough of Staten Island.[21] Alex Zablocki was also endorsed by theStaten Island Advance on October 30, 2009,[22] as well asThe Wave,[23] Rockaway's leading newspaper, on October 23, 2009.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Official results from theNew York City Board of Elections as of September 25, 2009:
| 2009 Democratic initial primary | Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Staten Island | Total | % |
| Bill de Blasio | 35,013 | 16,662 | 47,791 | 17,054 | 2,947 | 119,467 | 32.6% |
| 31.7% | 36.7% | 41.3% | 20.5% | 24.6% | |||
| Mark Green | 34,601 | 14,426 | 33,790 | 28,480 | 4,211 | 115,508 | 31.5% |
| 31.3% | 31.8% | 29.2% | 34.2% | 35.1% | |||
| Eric Gioia | 17,309 | 6,859 | 15,082 | 24,838 | 2,771 | 66,859 | 18.2% |
| 15.7% | 15.1% | 13.0% | 29.8% | 23.1% | |||
| Norman Siegel | 20,246 | 5,745 | 14,335 | 10,135 | 1,759 | 52,220 | 14.2% |
| 18.3% | 12.7% | 12.4% | 12.2% | 14.7% | |||
| Imtiaz S. Syed | 3,221 | 1,679 | 4,750 | 2,875 | 295 | 12,820 | 3.5% |
| 2.9% | 3.7% | 4.1% | 3.4% | 2.5% | |||
| all write-in votes | 14 | 1 | 18 | 10 | 0 | 43 | 0.01% |
| T O T A L | 110,404 | 45,372 | 115,766 | 83,392 | 11,983 | 366,917 |
As no candidate reached 40%, arunoff election for de Blasio and Green set for September 29 was required.[24][25]
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Official returns (as reported on October 20, 2009):
| 2009 Democratic run-off primary | Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Richmond[Staten Is.] | Total | % |
| Bill de Blasio | 46,295 | 17,074 | 49,667 | 28,450 | 3,927 | 145,413 | 62.4% |
| 61.4% | 61.7% | 67.6% | 57.0% | 58.0% | |||
| Mark Green | 29,121 | 10,589 | 23,814 | 21,429 | 2,840 | 87,793 | 37.6% |
| 38.6% | 38.3% | 32.4% | 43.0% | 42.0% | |||
| T O T A L | 75,416 | 27,663 | 73,481 | 49,879 | 6,767 | 233,206 |
Bill de Blasio became the Democratic nominee for public advocate.[26]
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
| 2009 general election | Party | Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Staten Island | Total | % |
| Bill de Blasio | Democratic | 183,917 | 92,022 | 205,155 | 166,119 | 32,153 | 679,366 | 72.7% |
| Working Families | 12,608 | 3,434 | 18,602 | 8,215 | 2,404 | 45,263 | 4.8% | |
| Total | 196,525 | 95,456 | 223,757 | 174,334 | 34,557 | 724,629 | 77.6% | |
| 81.5% | 84.9% | 81.7% | 73.2% | 50.5% | ||||
| Alex T. Zablocki | Republican | 35,515 | 13,013 | 37,683 | 49,988 | 27,891 | 164,090 | 17.6% |
| 14.7% | 11.6% | 13.8% | 21.0% | 40.7% | ||||
| William J. Lee | Conservative | 4,929 | 2,902 | 8,737 | 10,523 | 5,185 | 32,276 | 3.5% |
| 2.0% | 2.6% | 3.2% | 4.4% | 7.6% | ||||
| Maura de Luca | Socialist Workers | 2,455 | 788 | 2,555 | 2,029 | 478 | 8,305 | 0.9% |
| Jim Lesczynski | Libertarian | 1,812 | 268 | 1,223 | 1,138 | 367 | 4,808 | 0.5% |
| Total write-ins | 37 | 17 | 30 | 29 | 10 | 123 | 0.01% | |
| Total votes | 241,273 | 112,444 | 273,985 | 238,041 | 68,488 | 934,231 | ||
Source: Board of Elections in the City of New Yorkhttp://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/results.htmlArchived 2010-01-06 at theWayback Machine
Bill de Blasio was elected public advocate.
Candidate websites
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