I was up until midnight last night following the NYC’s mayoral race. I’m streaming WNYC on the computer at this moment. Great discussion by Ester Fuchs.
This mayoral race was fascinating for so many reasons.
First, it was a return to normal politics. There were coalitions. There were alliances. Candidates were vying for endorsements by key groups and were making speeches trying to reach certain consistencies. I’ve missed that. Bloomberg didn’t have to do that, because he spent 100s of millions of his own money to bypass that Jacksonian democracy of city politics.
Second, there were plenty of surprises with lots of jockeying for first place. Quinn is the leader, then Weiner, then deBlasio.
Third, Sydney Leathers.
Fourth, where’s Huma?
Fifth, we started talking about issues that I haven’t heard in about twelve years – race, class, gentrification, unions, housing, and jobs. Not big gulp sodas.
Sixth, apparently Christine Quinn lost her own district and lost the gay vote. Can a woman win a mayoral race in New York City?
Apt. 11d 
“..apparently Christine Quinn lost her own district and lost the gay vote..” My understanding is that Quinn is widely perceived as a humorless harpie. And Weiner, well, he has his own issues!!! So, we have a race which heavily voted for the normal people, that is deBlasio and Thompson. Very hard to tell what issues were important for people, when there was this huge overlay of unattractive personal qualities. We may find out something by how widely Lhota outperforms the expected vote for a Reep. dave.s.
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