New York City mayoral election, 2001

New York City mayoral election, 2001

1997 ← November 6, 2001 → 2005

Candidate Michael Bloomberg Mark J. Green Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 744,757 709,268 Percentage 50.3% 47.9%

Mayor before election Rudy Giuliani Republican Elected Mayor Michael Bloomberg Republican

The New York City mayoral election of 2001 occurred on November 6, 2001. Incumbent Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani could not run again due to term limits. As Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5 to 1 in the city, it was widely believed that a Democrat would succeed him in City Hall. However, businessman Michael Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat, changed his party affiliation a few months before the election in order to avoid a crowded primary, and ran as a Republican. Mark J. Green narrowly defeated Fernando Ferrer in the primary, surviving a negative contest that divided the party. A number of factors led to Bloomberg's ultimate victory in the general election, 49% to Green's 47%.

This was the third straight Republican mayoral victory in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.

Background

The primaries were originally scheduled for September 11. However, due to the September 11 attacks, the primary was cancelled and was rescheduled for September 25, and the run-off occurred on October 11. [1][2].

Late in the primary, Green was roundly criticized for the actions of supporters that were construed as racist, involving literature with New York Post caricatures of Ferrer and Al Sharpton distributed in white enclaves of Brooklyn and Staten Island. Green stated that he had nothing to do with the dissemination of the literature. An investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney came to the conclusion that "Mark Green had no knowledge of these events, and that when he learned of them, he repeatedly denounced the distribution of this literature and sought to find out who had engaged in it."[3] Nevertheless, the incident is thought to have diminished minority turnout in the general election and helped the Republican candidate win in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. (Village Voice columnist Peter Noel wrote that "Mark Green ... may have replaced [Giuliani] as the most hated white man in the African American community,"[4] an ironic twist for someone who had been so popular in that community for so long.)

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred on the morning that the primaries had been scheduled and also may have contributed to Green's loss, since the media barely covered the subsequent general election.

In the Green party Walter Iwachiw's write in campaign showed a strong grassroots support against Julia Willebrand, the board of election approved candidate. On 9-11-2001, Walter Iwachiw after turning over the campaign website to request emergency blood donations, became a first responder, first at the local firehouse, then the following day at ground zero and sustained injuries precluding participation in the rescheduled green primary as a write-in candidate. Despite earlier bias by Mr. Molinari and other Board of Election members, who dismissed the valid petitions of several green party candidates while validating George Spitz's equivalent valid petitions, there was strong grass root write-in support for Walter Iwachiw. http://webarchives.loc.gov/collections/lcwa0006/20021106040005/http://www.walrus.com/~terminus/iw/ ^[1]

General election candidates

Republican Party

• Michael R. Bloomberg

Democratic Party

• Mark J. Green

Conservative Party

• Terrance M. Gray

Liberal Party

• Alan G. Hevesi

Green Party

• Julia Willebrand

Libertarian Party

• Kenny Kramer

American Dream Party

• Kenneth B. Golding

Marijuana Reform Party

• Thomas K. Leighton

Working Families Party

• Mark J. Green

Unsuccessful candidates

Republican Party

• Herman Badillo

Democratic Party

• Fernando Ferrer
• Peter F. Vallone
• Alan G. Hevesi
• George Spitz

Primaries

Democratic

Initial results

Democratic Primary, September 25, 2001
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
	Fernando Ferrer	60,839	86,571	77,516	49,441	5,084	279,451
	Mark Green	83,856	26,125	77,805	49,692	5,704	243,182
	Peter F. Vallone (Sr.)	25,296	18,268	51,210	48,576	11,842	155,192
	Alan G. Hevesi	32,925	6,066	25,110	27,163	3,504	94,768
	George N. Spitz	1,558	1,264	2,923	2,489	283	8,517
							785,365

Green clearly led among Manhattan's Democrats, Ferrer among The Bronx's and Vallone among Staten Island's. Ferrer and Green were evenly matched in Brooklyn, while all three candidates were essentially tied in Queens.

Runoff results

Democratic Primary Runoff
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
	Mark Green	131,438	38,256	120,781	94,342	18,183	403,000
	Fernando Ferrer	86,579	106,086	109,831	77,330	7,193	387,019
							790,019

Republican

Republican Primary, September 25, 2001
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
	Michael Bloomberg	10,959	3,230	10,168	14,543	9,155	48,055
	Herman Badillo	4,161	1,838	4,153	5,700	2,624	18,476
							72,961

General election campaign

Unlike his cash-poor Democratic rival, who had just emerged from an expensive primary and expected to rely on traditionally reliable free media coverage that never materialized, Bloomberg continued to spend $74 million on TV ads and direct mail in the weeks after the attacks, which was a record amount at the time for a non-presidential election (Bloomberg would break his own record in 2005). [5]

Rudy Giuliani, who suddenly had an extremely high popularity rating even among minorities, publicly endorsed Bloomberg.^[2]

Additionally, Green made a controversial decision during the primary run-off to support Giuliani's unprecedented attempt to extend his own mayoral term, in the name of the emergency of 9/11. Ferrer opposed Giuliani's ultimately unsuccessful attempt at term self-extension, and was able to accuse Green of being rolled over by Giuliani.

The Economist wrote, "The billionaire businessman [Bloomberg] is usually seen as one of the post-September 11th winners (if such a word can be so used): he would probably have lost the mayoralty to Mark Green, a leftish Democrat, had the terrorist strike not happened. Yet it is also worth noting that his election probably spared New York city a turbulent period of score-settling over Rudy Giuliani's legacy."^[3]

The election was also notable for two non-politician semi-celebrities running on third-party tickets: Bernhard Goetz, who had achieved fame in 1984 as the "subway vigilante" for shooting four youths who tried to rob him, on the Fusion Party ticket, and Kenny Kramer, who was the inspiration for the character Cosmo Kramer on the TV show Seinfeld, on the Libertarian Party ticket.

General election results

Michael Bloomberg secured victory in a close election, with 744,757 votes. Although he lost in three of the five boroughs, he was able to collect enough votes in Staten Island and Queens so that he may come in as a tight first. Due to New York's electoral fusion rules, all candidates were allowed to run representing different parties.

General Election
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
Republican- Independence	Michael R. Bloomberg	179,797	80,597	189,040	210,432	84,891	744,757
Democratic-Working Families	Mark J. Green	202,574	102,280	217,222	163,528	23,664	709,268
Conservative	Terrance M. Gray	507	642	844	1,219	365	3,577
Liberal-Better Schools	Alan G. Hevesi	2,684	847	2,124	1,886	486	10,331
Green	Julia Willebrand	2,241	670	2,456	1,579	209	7,155
American Dream	Kenneth B. Golding	96	112	163	81	22	474
Libertarian	Kenny Kramer	368	296	338	306	100	1,408
Fusion	Bernhard H. Goetz	203	201	333	253	59	1,049
Marijuana Reform Party	Thomas K. Leighton	791	529	680	418	145	2,563
							1,480,582

References

1. ^ http://webarchive.loc.gov/collections/lcwa0006/*/http://www.walrus.com/~terminus/iw/ http://memory.loc.gov/elect2002/catalog/2138.html
2. ^ Nagourney, Adam. "Bloomberg Puts Eggs In a Basket: Giuliani's", The New York Times, October 28, 2001. Accessed December 31, 2007. "Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's decision to endorse Michael R. Bloomberg at City Hall yesterday provides Mr. Bloomberg with perhaps his greatest hope for victory as he moves into the final days of what his supporters describe as a troubled campaign."
3. ^ " New York's difficult year", The Economist, September 12, 2002. Accessed December 31, 2007.

See also