Mayor Michael Bloomberg Wins Third Term

MYFOXNY.COM/AP - Michael R. Bloomberg has won re-election in a tighter-than-expected race, becoming the first three-term mayor since Ed Koch.

The billionaire self-financed his campaign for the third time, spending about $100 million to blanket airwaves with commercials and fill mailboxes with glossy, multi-page fliers to figuratively bury his opponent, Democrat William C. Thompson Jr., the city comptroller.

Turnout was light, and Thompson apparently benefited from anger of Bloomberg's move to extend term limits last year without putting the issue in a voter referendum.

Bloomberg defeated Thompson 51 percent to 46 percent, with a raw vote difference of less than 51,000 votes. That margin of victory is far less that his 2005 win of more than 20 points and less than recent surveys predicted.

The mayor called it a "hard-fought victory in a very difficult year," and promised that New Yorkers "ain't seen nothing yet" from him.

"I'm committed to working twice as hard in the next four years as I did in the past eight," Bloomberg said.

Thompson ran up huge margins in black and Hispanic neighborhoods, winning by a 3-to-1 margin in some districts, according to the AP.

"This campaign was about defying conventional wisdom. ... this campaign was about standing strong, standing tall and never backing down in the face of a formidable challenge," Thompson said after conceding defeat.

Bloomberg, who is not enrolled in a party, ran on the Republican and Independence party lines.