De Blasio Claims 'Mandate' Despite Record Low Turnout

NEW YORK CITY HALL — Mayor Bill de Blasio said he has a "mandate" to make progressive change in his second term despite a record-low voter turnout rate in Tuesday's election. While he denied having aspirations for higher office, the Democratic mayor said he wants New York City to be at the forefront of a national rebuke of President Donald Trump.

“Yesterday the people of New York City delivered a message loud and clear and they delivered a mandate, and it's a mandate for fairness, to make this the fairest big city in America," de Blasio said Wednesday at a news conference in City Hall.

De Blasio defeated Republican state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, winning 66 percent of the votes to her 27 percent. Turnout seemed to hit a new low, with 23.8 percent of active registered voters casting ballots for mayor, down slightly from 24 percent in 2013.

But de Blasio bristled at the suggestion that anemic turnout reflects indifference to his candidacy. More people voted Tuesday than in the last mayoral election, he noted, even after a cold rain storm in the key evening hours.

It's actually state election laws, a specter of "the bad history of Tammany Hall," that keep people at home, the mayor said. He vowed to push for early voting, same-day registration and other reforms in Albany, where he has a tense relationship with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"I think it's the beginning of rebuilding turnout to the levels we'd like to get it to," de Blasio said. "I think there's a lot of reasons turnout got depressed over decades in this city and in this country."

Those systemic obstacles didn't keep about 61.6 percent of the city's voters from casting ballots in last year's presidential election. Races in which local officials lead the ticket generally draw fewer voters than those dominated by statewide or national elections.

Still, de Blasio argued his victory was part of a wave that swept a Democrats into the New Jersey governorship and the county executive's offices in suburban Nassau and Westchester counties.

Those victories are the harbinger of a progressive rejection of Trump's right-wing policies, the mayor said. He wants to help lead that movement, he said. But he pledged to serve his full second term and denied having plans to form a political committee to address national issues, which The New York Times reported Thursday.

"Something very big is happening, trust me, and it's going to play out now and it's going to be supercharged going into 2018," de Blasio said.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio addresses reporters in City Hall on Wednesday. Photo by Noah Manskar)