Yes, of course, everyone was watching Virginia, New Jersey and upstate New York on Tuesday's off-year election night.
But one of the most dramatic stories played out in New York City, where Mayor Mike Bloomberg forced a rewrite of the city's term-limit law so that he could seek a third term.
Bloomberg left a Republican Party tha had turned exceedingly unpopular in the nation's largest city, spent an estimated $100 million of his own money and collected endorsements from the major daily newspapers and more than a few Democratic elected officials.
John Nichols
Yes, of course, everyone was watching Virginia, New Jersey and upstate New York on Tuesday’s off-year election night.
But one of the most dramatic stories played out in New York City, where Mayor Mike Bloomberg forced a rewrite of the city’s term-limit law so that he could seek a third term.
Bloomberg left a Republican Party tha had turned exceedingly unpopular in the nation’s largest city, spent an estimated $100 million of his own money and collected endorsements from the major daily newspapers and more than a few Democratic elected officials.
What did it get him?
A win so narrow that it was not declared until two hours after the polls closed.
At one point, with over half the votes counted, Bloomberg led less-than-dazzling Democrat Bill Thompson by barely 3,000 votes.
Bloomberg eventually edging ahead to win by a 50-46 margin.
The mayor said he was “humbled” by the result.
And rightly so.
The margin was too close to make the independent mayor a credible contender for the presidency in 2012.
It wasn’t even a mandate for a third term — at least not a meaningful one.
And people thought Bloomberg was overspending!
Turns out he really did need all $100 million.
John NicholsTwitterJohn Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation. He has written, cowritten, or edited over a dozen books on topics ranging from histories of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyses of US and global media systems. His latest, cowritten with Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.