New York elects Bill de Blasio as mayor and turns …

New Yorkers on Tuesday elected a Democrat firmly rooted on the left to replace billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, in power for 12 years. Bill de Blasio, a 52-year-old Italian-American married to an African-American, has crushed his Republican opponent Joe Lhota, preliminary results show.

While 56% of the ballots were counted, Bill de Blasio, 52, has a very large lead, with 73% of the vote against 24% for his Republican opponent Joe Lhota.

Marked on the left and author of an electoral campaign focused on reducing inequalities, he succeeds businessman Michael Bloomberg who is completing his third term.

“Dear New Yorkers, today you have made a loud and clear voice heard so that the city takes a new direction, united in the certainty that our city must not leave any New Yorker behind,” said the winner. in front of his supporters gathered in Brooklyn.

“Fundamental change”

Again Tuesday, after having voted all smiles in his neighborhood of Park Slope in Brooklyn, Mr. de Blasio called for a “fundamental change” after 12 years of a Bloomberg pro-business hyperdisciplined and considered little inclined to empathy.

Referring to “the many New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet,” de Blasio reaffirmed the “need for deep, progressive change and to move away from the policies of the Bloomberg era” in a city of dizzying inequality , but safer, greener, healthier and more touristic than ever.

Bill de Blasio has promised to develop access to kindergartens, proposing to tax more affluent social categories to finance this project. He also pledged to fight to preserve the hospital network.

Voting without passion

Voters, many of whom hail Mr Bloomberg’s record, went to vote dispassionately, following a fierce but breathless campaign in which Mr de Blasio, the city’s elected mediator, only belatedly broke through .

During his campaign, he largely highlighted his multiracial family, his wife Chirlane McCray, an extremely active former lesbian poet, and their two children, Dante, 16, and Chiara, 18: a “modern family” in the image of a multiracial city, now 33.3% white, 25.5% black, 28.6% Hispanic and 12.7% Asian.

New York, 8.3 million people, has six times more Democratic voters than Republicans, but had not elected a Democratic mayor since 1989.

Chris Christie reelected

“Big Apple” was not the only American city to vote on Tuesday. Boston, Seattle, Detroit and Atlanta also elected their mayors.

In very Democratic New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie easily won a second term as governor. This strong personality is now essential in the perspective of the 2016 presidential election.

And in Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe narrowly won Tuesday night in the election for governor in Virginia (north), according to US media projections.

According to these projections representing 95% of the results counted, Mr. McAuliffe, who takes the place of a Republican governor, obtains 47.2% of the votes and the Republican Ken Cuccinelli 46%. This vote could have important consequences for the 2016 presidential election.

Many promises

In New York, after Rudolph Giuliani (1994-2001) and Michael Bloomberg (2002-2013), Bill de Blasio, positioned himself from the top of his 1.95 meter as a “progressive, proud of it”, defender middle classes, families and minorities.

He has promised a lot, denounced day after day the inequalities in the city which has some 400,000 millionaires and the most billionaires in the world, but of which 21% of the population lives below the poverty line.

He pledged to build 200,000 social housing units, to defend neighborhood hospitals and to replace the chief of police, due to the controversial practice of “stop and frisk” searches of pedestrians targeting mainly young blacks. and Latinos.

Lhota was “very optimistic”

Joe Lhota, 58, his Republican opponent, former New York transport president (MTA), said Tuesday, without anyone to believe it, that he was “very optimistic”. He often called Bill de Blasio a “socialist”, assuring that his victory would be synonymous with an increase in delinquency and a calamitous management of public finances.

Former assistant to Rudolph Giuliani, he had unsuccessfully put forward his experience, facing a de Blasio, former Brooklyn city councilor (2002 – 2009) and former Hillary Clinton campaign manager for the Senate in 2000, who admitted himself never having managed more than 250 people.

Some 300,000 people work for New York City Hall. The future mayor of New York will take office on January 1.

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