Bill De Blasio Coasts To NYC Mayoral Victory

Bill de Blasio easily defeated his Republican opponent, Joe Lhota, in Tuesday's New York City mayoral election, and was set to become the city's first Democratic mayor since 1993.

Final results were not available, but the New York Times and CNN called it for de Blasio shortly after the polls closed. A large crowd of supporters was awaiting remarks from de Blasio at his election night party in Brooklyn. Lhota was also due to take the stage at a Manhattan hotel.

De Blasio never had less than a 40-point lead in polls conducted in the two months since he and Lhota emerged from the Sept. 10 primaries. With his historic lead in the general election, it was easy to forget what an upset de Blasio's victory really was. Just a few short months ago, the notion of a Mayor de Blasio seemed almost far-fetched.

For more than two years, de Blasio polled behind a rotating cast of Democratic frontrunners, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former Rep. Anthony Weiner. After the latter's spectacular, scandalous implosion, de Blasio began to surge in mid-August with the help of a wildly successful television ad campaign. He never looked back. In September's primary, de Blasio earned 40.3 percent of the vote, enough to help him narrowly avoid a runoff against the second-place finisher, New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

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