Primary Voters Head to Polls to Pick Possible Successor to Bloomberg

By Lauren Keating

New Yorkers went to the polls on Tuesday in two party primaries that set the stage for the end of the long tenure of Michael Bloomberg, with the mood of the voters seeming to look forward to a more progressive era in city government.

In the unusually crowded Democratic field were Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former Comptroller William Thompson Jr., City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, Comptroller John Liu, former City Councilman Sal Albanese, and Erick Salgado, a Staten Island pastor.

The clear front-runner was de Blasio who, polls show, free run 3.0 v3 femmes held an approval mark of 39 percent , razor close to the 40 percent he would need to avoid a runoff with his closest competitors, Thompson (25 percent) and Quinn (18 percent). If necessary, the runoff would be held on October 1.

De Blasio surprised political observers by quickly taking the lead over his more well-known rivals by marketing  himself as the most anti-Bloomberg of the candidates.

“We’re ready for a runoff and we feel confident in a runoff,” said a beaming de Blasio after voting with his wife Chirlene in Park Slope.

Meanwhile Quinn, the early front-runner,  voting in Chelsea acknowledged that her road to victory would be rocky. “I always knew this was going to be a fight to the end,” she said,holding hands with her wife, Kim Catullo. She expressed confidence, however, that she would make the runoff. “In three weeks wee will be right back here.”

Christine Quinn would make history if elected for being both the first woman and openly

gay candidate. Quinn and wife Kim Catullo arrived  around 10 a.m. to P.S. 33 in Chelsea to vote. Outside she spoke of her plans to build 80,000 units of new affordable housing with 40,000 units for the middle class, as well as making sure that stop-and-frisk comes to an end.

The less crowded Republican field featured former MTA chief Joseph Lhota, who leads in the polls, battling it out with his closer competitor,billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis,  and homeless advocate and entrepreneur George McDonald trailing the field.

Catsimatdis voted Tuesday at 110 East 60^th  with his wife Margo, son John Jr., and daughter Andrea. “I grew up in Harlem and won’t forget where I came from,” he said.

Known from his rags to riches story, the Gristedes supermarket chain owner portrayed himself to reporters as the candidate of the outer boroughs as he stood on East 60th Street in Manhattan.

Catsimatdis criticized rival Lhota for focusing less on the race and more on former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “Is there a single commercial where Joe talks?” he asked. “Am I fighting Joe or Rudy?”

On the Democratic side Bill Thompson hit all five boroughs on a 24-hour whirlwind tour  before voting at P.S. 242 in Harlem. He had sprinted across the city, including a midnight stop at a 9/11 memorial at Rockaway Tribute Park in Queens and attended a pro-gun control candlelight vigil in Brownsville, where a one-year-old boy was fatally shot last week.

“I had the energy of the people of New York City to keep me going,” he said outside the polling station. Thompson echoed his rival Quinn, saying he too expected to make the runoff

After casting his ballot, Thompson traveled to the 148th Street subway station in Harlem to greet morning commuters. Members of the United Federation of Teachers, which endorsed Thompson’s campaign earlier this summer, joined him there to promote his campaign and remind residents to vote.

Charon Robinson, 44, said she planned to vote for Thompson because of his experience as former head of the Board of Education.

Only fewer than 800,000 of the city’s 3.4 million registered Democrats and Republicans were expected to vote in the primaries. However, the mostly sunny skies were expected to boost turnout.

“I think there has been plenty of predictions about low turnouts, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s better than expected,” de Blasio said

Campaigning in his home borough of Queens Democrat John Liu, polling at only 4 percent, free run 3.0 v4 still had his usual bravado. “Tonight we expect to have a big victory party,” he said.

Liu also referred to the legal troubles by associates that dampened his campaign. “There has been every curve ball imaginable thrown at me for this campaign,,” he added, “but we have continued to go steady full steam ahead.” He has been under scrutiny after his treasurer and fund-raiser were both found guilty of campaign contribution fraud.

Disgraced Congressman Anthony Wiener added spice to the campaign if not much muscle. Though his entry in the race was greeted with strong numbers, they soon plummeted after he was caught in another lewd messaging scandal and recently went off on a Brooklyn heckler for attacking him for being “married to an Arab.”

His numbers now stood at six percent.

The whiff of scandal also entered the race for City Comptroller after disgraced former governor Eliot Spitzer challenged former borough president Scott Stringer who was earlier expected to have a cakewalk to the office. Spitzer, trying to resurrect his political life after he resigned in a prostitution scandal, filed his candidacy just before deadline and used his considerable fortune to fund the campaign. The race, bitterly contested, stood at a dead heat.

Also reported by David Beltran, Chris Butera, Jessica Jupiter, Samuel Paul and Deanne Stewart