NYC Mayor: $100M Just Doesn't Buy What It Used To

Despite polls showing Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I) leading Comp. Bill Thompson (D) by as many as 15 points the week before Election Day, Bloomberg eked out only a narrow victory today.

The AP called the race with 95% of the precincts reporting citywide; Bloomberg leads Thompson, 50-46%.

The race had been called earlier tonight by numerous news outlets relying on an outside source of data, but some of them retracted the call when results showed Thompson within only a few thousand votes.

Bloomberg, despite spending upwards of $100M of his vast fortune on the campaign, may have been the victim of an anti-incumbent sentiment -- particularly in the light of his effort to amend the city's term limits law to allow for his bid for a third term.

"We learned tonight that people do not forget easily," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-09), who lost the Dem nod for mayor in '05 and considered running again this year before giving way to Thompson, told the New York Times. "And a lot of people, whether they said it to pollsters or not, were offended by the term limits fight."

Thompson had received only a tepid endorsement from Pres. Obama and the WH. And other statewide Dems -- Gov. David Paterson and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand -- endorsed Thompson but refused to criticize Bloomberg.

(STEVEN SHEPARD)