Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009

Bloomberg, challenger in close race for NY mayor

By SARA KUGLER Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is locked in a surprisingly tight race with his Democratic challenger for a third term as New York mayor.

With 64 percent of precincts reporting, Bloomberg had 48.9 percent to Democrat William Thompson Jr.'s 47.6 percent. The two men were separated by less than 14,000 votes.

This after Bloomberg spent more than $100 million on the most expensive self-financed campaign in U.S. history.

Thompson was widely predicted to lose by double digits, but he hoped to stoke voter resentment over the way Bloomberg sought a change to the city's term-limits law to stay in office.

Thompson relied on donations and matching funds for his mayoral bid and probably spent about one-tenth of Bloomberg's total.

Bloomberg won by a nearly 20-point blowout in 2005.

2009-11-04     03:23:32 GMT

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