2009 New York City mayoral election

← 2005 November 3, 2009 2013 →
Registered	4,095,561
Turnout	1,154,802 28.19% (5.15pp)
Nominee Michael Bloomberg Bill Thompson Party Independent Democratic Alliance Republican Independence Working Families Popular vote 585,466 534,869 Percentage 50.7% 46.3%
Borough results State Assembly results Bloomberg:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90% Thompson:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%
Mayor before election Michael Bloomberg Independent ElectedMayor Michael Bloomberg Independent

The 2009 election forMayor of New York City took place on Tuesday, November 3. IncumbentMichael Bloomberg, anindependent who left theRepublican Party in 2008, was reelected on the Republican andIndependence Party/Jobs & Education lines with 50.7% of the vote, over the retiringCity Comptroller,Bill Thompson, aDemocrat (also endorsed by theWorking Families Party), who won 46.3%.^[1] Thompson had won the Democratic primary election on September 15 with 71% of the vote, over City CouncilmanTony Avella and Roland Rogers.^[2] This was the fifth straight mayoral victory by Republican nominees in New York, and the most recent to date, despite the city's strong Democratic lean in national and state elections.

Six other parties' candidates also contested the general election in November. Stephen Christopher of theConservative Party of New York won 1.6% of the vote, more than the combined total of all the other minor candidates.^[1] The turnout of voters—fewer than 350,000 in September, and fewer than 1.2 million in November—was relatively low for recent mayoral elections, and Bloomberg won with fewer votes than any successful mayoral candidate had received since women joined the city's electorate in 1917. Democrats flipped back the borough of Brooklyn.

Before the election, theNew York City Council voted to extendthe city's term limits, permitting Bloomberg (previously elected in2001 and2005) and other second-term officeholders, such as Thompson, to run for a third term by way ofLocal Law 51 of 2008.^[3] Attempts to put this decision to apopular referendum,^[3] to reverse it in thefederal courts,^[4] or to override it withstate legislation were unsuccessful.

As of 2026, this is the last mayoral election in which a candidate on the Republican ballot line carried Manhattan or Queens. It is also the last time that a candidate on the Republican line won more than 30 percent of the vote, and only the fifth time since1969 (not countingEd Koch winning his second term with the endorsement of both major parties in1981).

New York City elected itsMayor by popular vote whenGreater New York was formed in 1897, then in 1901, 1903, 1905, and every four years thereafter, as well as in the special elections of 1930 and 1950. Nineteen of the 31 mayoral elections held between 1897 and 2005 were won by the official candidate of theDemocratic Party, eight by theRepublican Party's nominee, and four by others. (The last official Democratic candidate to win the mayoralty wasDavid Dinkins inthe election of 1989; the last candidate to win the mayoralty without winning either the Republican or the Democratic primary was MayorJohn V. Lindsay, running for re-election on theLiberal columnin 1969.)

Michael Bloomberg, formerly a Democrat, was elected as a Republican in2001 and2005, succeeding another Republican mayor,Rudy Giuliani, elected in1993 and1997. Bloomberg left the Republican Party in 2008 and became apolitical independent. By a hotly contested vote of 29–22 on October 23, 2008, theNew York City Council extended the former two-term limit for Mayor, Council, and other elected city offices to three terms, allowing Bloomberg to pursue his announced intention to seek a third term in 2009.^[3] Legal challenges to the extension failed in federal court,^[4] and a proposed law in theNew York State Legislature to override the extension was not passed.

Bloomberg's most prominent opponent wasBill Thompson, who could (similarly) have run for a third term asNew York City Comptroller in 2009, but instead sought, and won, the Democratic nomination for mayor.

• Michael Bloomberg, incumbent mayor since 2002 (Independent)

• Bruce Blakeman, attorney and member of the board of thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey (endorsed Bloomberg)^[5]

• Richard Parsons, chairman ofCitigroup (endorsed Bloomberg)^[6]

Though he had changed his party registration to unaffiliated, Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican nomination in the party primary.^[7][8]

• Tony Avella, member of theNew York City Council fromQueens^[9][10]
• Roland Rogers^[9]
• Bill Thompson,New York City Comptroller since 2002 (Democratic and Working Families)^[9][11][12]

• Anthony Weiner, U.S. representative (withdrew on May 28, 2009)(endorsed Thompson)^{[citation needed]}

Thompson and Avella held their first televised debate on August 26 at theNew York Public Library. They both directed more fire at Bloomberg than at each other. "After eight years of a Republican mayor who is focused on developers and the wealthy, I think New Yorkers are looking for change", Thompson said, while Avella declared that the "arrogance of billionaire Mike Bloomberg to think he's so important that he can overturn the term limits law, I think, is disgraceful."^[13] Another debate was held on September 9.^[14]

Out of the nearly 400 write-in votes, almost half or 184 (representing about one Democratic voter in 2,000) were some form or spelling of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.^[2]

• Michael Bloomberg, incumbent mayor since 2002 (Independence/Jobs & Education and Republican)^{[15][16][17][18]}
• Stephen Christopher, pastor at Memorial Baptist Church inPark Slope^[7][8]
• Joseph Dobrian, journalist and talk show host (Libertarian)^[19]
• Tyrrell Eiland, architect (New Voice)^[8][20]
• Dan Fein, candidate for Comptroller in 2005 (Socialist Workers)^[21][22][23]
• John M. Finan, businessman and Libertarian Party candidate for president in 2008 (Independent)^[24]
• Jimmy McMillan, war veteran and candidate for mayor in 2005 (Rent is 2 Damn High)^[25][21][9]
• Jonny Porkpie, burlesque performer (Independent)^[26][27][28]
• Billy Talen, reverend (Green)^[29]
• Bill Thompson,New York City Comptroller since 2002 (Democratic and Working Families)^[9][11][12]
• Frances Villar, Lehman College student activist (Socialism and Liberation)^[30]

• Robert Burck, street performer known as the Naked Cowboy^[31][32] (withdrew September 2009)^[33]

In the final weeks of the campaign, Bloomberg was endorsed "enthusiastically" by theNew York Times, which—while calling Thompson a "worthy opponent"—praised Bloomberg for handling city matters "astonishingly well".^[35] Most other local newspapers had preceded theTimes in endorsing the mayor,^[36] but many did so tepidly, presaging the misgivings ofThe New Yorker. In a report filed days before the election, the magazine likened Bloomberg toMarcus Licinius Crassus:^[37]

The Mayor has ruled us well, but he has infantilized us. We are a little too much like Romans of Crassus' day, when the institutions of the old republic were giving way to a despotic (and competent) imperium.... If Bloomberg had been satisfied with two terms, he would be leaving office a beloved legend, a municipal god. He'll get his third, but we'll give it to him sullenly... The Pax Bloombergiana will endure a while longer. But then what? Will we have forgotten how to govern ourselves?

• 2009 New York City Public Advocate election
• 2009 New York City Comptroller election
• 2013 New York City mayoral election
• 2005 New York City mayoral election
• 2001 New York City mayoral election
• New York City mayoral elections

• 2009 New York City Mayor General Election: William Thompson (D) vs Mayor Michael Bloomberg (i) chart of aggregated poll results fromPollster.com

• Mayoral elections in New York City
• 2009 New York (state) elections
• 2009 in New York City
• 2009 United States mayoral elections
• Michael Bloomberg

• Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments
• Webarchive template wayback links
• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from January 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from September 2023
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2025