Now comes the nasty runoff in NYC
and indications are that it will be very nasty indeed. Although de Blasio hovers just around 40%, Thompson has made clear that he'll wait for all the absentee ballots to be counted. That will take the weeks between now and Oct. 1 so even if there isn't a runoff vote, the next few weeks will see campaigning as if there will be. Even though both de Blasio and Thompson would be clear frontrunners against repub Lhota, let's hope they don't damage each other too badly.
<snip>
Unofficial tallies put De Blasio at 40.2%, just over the 40% needed to avoid a run-off on 1 October. A decisive result would place De Blasio in the front-runner position for the November general election, where he would go up against the former chief of New York's transport agency, Joe Lhota, who won the Republican nomination.
But official results put him just under 40% and should a final count force De Blasio to go to a second round, he would go face Bill Thompson, the city's former comptroller, or chief auditor, who took second place with 26%. Christine Quinn, the city council leader and early favourite, was beaten into a distant third place.
<snip>
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/bill-de-blasio-tops-new-york-mayoral-primary
<snip>
If there's a runoff, de Blasio goes in as a heavy favorite thanks to his dominant first-place showing, but things are likely to get nasty fast. Thompson's campaign has already tried to dub his rival "Bill de Bliar" and paint him as a hypocrite for not disclosing his meetings with lobbyists. (De Blasio retorts that Thompson actually was a lobbyist for an investment firm.) Thompson's low-key presence doesn't exactly light audiences on fire, but he gets some credit from Democratic partisans for having run against Bloomberg in 2009 -- and come within 5 points, surprising those who expected a Bloomberg blowout. Expect de Blasio's campaign to highlight the fact that Thompson has been, in the words of Alex Pareene, "quietly running as the most conservative Democrat in the race" -- he's backed by former Republican Senator Al D'Amato, and his refusal to strongly oppose stop-and-frisk alienated his onetime ally Rev. Al Sharpton. Remarkably, exit polls showed Thompson, who is black, slightly lagging de Blasio, whose wife is black, among African-American voters.
<snip>
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/bill-de-blasio-is-probably-the-democratic-nominee-for-mayor-of-new-york/279552/