By Heather Grossmann and Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producers
MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg won re-election on Tuesday, but the slim five-point margin that earned him the victory is indicative of a troubled electorate, and a challenging third term to come.
Low voter turnout — only 1.1 million voters hit the polls Tuesday — typically favors the challenger, but the unexpectedly tight race is more likely attributable to anger over both the reversal of term limits and the record-setting $100 million Bloomberg spent on his campaign.
“I honestly thought Mayor Bloomberg spent way too much money and bought people’s votes,” said Justin Carter, a Lower East Side resident.
Carter’s friend Andrew Gath agreed, saying that the mayor didn’t get the predicted blowout win because “New York was reacting to the thought that Bloomberg was overspending.”
Millie Cruz, a 71-year-old Bronx resident, said that she lives on a fixed income that stays the same, even as taxes rise. She blames the increases on Bloomberg and said that she was upset that he was allowed to run for a third term.
“The taxes — they’re ridiculous. That kills me,” Cruz said. “We can’t afford it. People didn’t want him because of term limits.”
But some voters felt that Bloomberg did what was necessary for the city when he extended term limits.
“I think that mixing things up right not is not what the city needs,” said Lisette Johnson, citing the city’s budget crisis. “People are frightened.
Johnson conceded that the poll numbers made it clear that Bloomberg did not have a mandate and she said she hoped that the mayor understood that and would work for the people’s trust.
Chris Dolin, a Harlem native, thought that the voters delivered a strong message at the polls.
“I’d feel like I got spanked — sort of slapped— if I were in Bloomberg’s shoes,” Dolin said. “My hope is that he feels chastened by this...I would imagine there’s some soul searching going on.”
Bloomberg will be the fourth mayor of New York City in the past 100 years to serve a third term. The previous mayors with that distinction, Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Wagner and Ed Koch, did not have an easy go of it, facing scandal, corruption and flagging reputations towards the end of their long tenure in office.
But the indomitable Bloomberg insisted that he will not be felled by the infamous “third-term curse.”
“We’ve spent the last eight years defying conventional wisdom,” the mayor told the crowd at his campaign celebration on Nov. 3.
“We’ve proven the experts wrong again and again and again and we’re not stopping now.”
But the fact remains that Bloomberg won this election with 100,000 fewer votes than he did in 2005, and while he triumphed in pushing for a third term, the results of Tuesday's election indicate that it may be time for him to change his method of governance.
