New York: As it is the case with many elected polititians, the danger now is that de Blasio confuses the electorate’s desire to maintain the progress of the past 20 years with a hunger for wholesale change.

Meet the New Boss

by Nicole Gelinas

Bill de Blasio’s only mandate is not to screw up

Democrat Bill de Blasio didn’t just beat his Republican rival Joe Lhota in Tuesday’s election for New York City mayor. According to the headline in the New York Post, he achieved “utter destruction.” 

De Blasio’s 49-point victory was a bigger margin than the city has seen in nearly 30 years. 

He is naturally taking his decisive win as evidence that New Yorkers want a radically new governing strategy. “Today, you spoke out loudly and clearly for a new direction,” he said last night. “The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and tonight we set forth on it.” 

But de Blasio is wrong; the city is not yearning for progressive change. Rather, his mandate is merely to continue governing the city in pretty much the same way it’s been governed for the last two decades.

One has to stretch to find the evidence of massive voter dissatisfaction. Consider, first, turnout. Preliminary results show that about 1 million New Yorkers voted yesterday. That’s 13 percent lower than four years ago. Back then, remember, many voters disillusioned with the choices—Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was running for a third term against the uninspiring Bill Thompson, Jr.—just stayed home. Turnout this year was as much as 30 percent below 12 years ago, when Bloomberg won his first victory. Voters supposedly so eager for change this year didn’t show that eagerness by voting. And a slim majority of the people who did vote—51 percent—told exit pollsters that they approve of Bloomberg, anyway. Though de Blasio’s victory margin was impressive, the scale of the win looks less stellar when put into recent historical context. As of early Wednesday, de Blasio had 752,605 votes—a hair shy of Bloomberg’s 753,089 votes in 2005.

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