NYC Waits to See if Democrats Need Runoff

Once the Democratic primary results are finalized, New York voters and the bond markets can see the city’s future more clearly, one observer said Wednesday.

“Bill de Blasio wants to tax everything to high heaven, which concerns a lot of people. Bill Thompson is more pragmatic,” Anthony Figliola, the vice president of Uniondale, N.Y., lobbying group Empire Government Strategies, said of the two possible November opponents to Republican nominee Joseph Lhota.

A runoff between de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, and former city comptroller Thompson could be necessary. In counts reported on Tuesday night de Blasio had just above the 40% needed to avoid a runoff. The city’s Board of Elections must still count paper and absentee ballots, which could take days.

Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a deputy mayor in Rudolph Giuliani’s administration, totaled 52% against businessman John Catsimatidis, who had 41%.

“The business community is very skeptical about people who only want to tax everyone, and that’s something voters and the bond community should be wary of,” said Figliola. “Once the primary is behind, people will stop pandering to their bases.”

Meanwhile, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer failed in his political comeback try, losing a narrow Democratic primary for city comptroller to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Stringer had 52% to Spitzer’s 48%.

Stringer in November will face Republican John Burnett in an open-seat election for the office that oversees the city’s bond program and $140 billion pension funds.

Spitzer, who took on Wall Street white-collar crime as a state attorney general, resigned as governor in 2008 after a prostitution scandal.

Thompson, who lost the 2009 election to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, earned 26% while City Council Speaker Christine Quinn had 16%. Bloomberg can’t seek a fourth term. De Blasio surged late in the polls while early leader Quinn plummeted. Incumbent comptroller John Liu and former congressman Anthony Weiner ran well behind the others.

Weiner, like Spitzer, was making a political comeback. He resigned from Congress in 2011 after a sex-oriented texting scandal.

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