Buffalo Socialist Lags; Minneapolis Keeps Cops: Election Update
(Bloomberg) -- New York City elected Democrat Eric Adams as its next mayor, defeating his Republican challenger, Curtis Sliwa. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and a retired police captain, is set to become the second Black mayor in the city’s history.
A fiercely contested gubernatorial contest in Virginia is being decided on Tuesday, while in New Jersey an incumbent is fighting to protect his lead. Although it’s an off-year election in the U.S., both the Republican and Democratic parties have been watching the two races for implications for next year’s midterm elections that will decide control of the House and Senate.
This Election Day is the first since Joe Biden, a Democrat, became president. With his approval ratings in decline and Congress yet to approve his economic agenda, Republican victories are possible in either state.
Republican Glenn Youngkin maintained a strong lead over former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, in the state’s most expensive gubernatorial race ever. In New Jersey, first-term Democratic Governor Phil Murphy also held an early lead against the GOP’s Jack Ciattarelli, an ex-state lawmaker, according to the Associated Press.
Key stories and developments:
All times are Eastern Daylight:
Socialist Lags in Buffalo; Minneapolis Measure Fails (10:25)
Self-described socialist India Walton trailed in early returns in her bid to become mayor of Buffalo, New York, as the incumbent mounted a fierce write-in campaign to keep his job.
The incumbent, Byron Brown, who lost to Walton in the Democratic primary, held an almost 2-1 advantage with about 21% of the votes tallied, according to the Associated Press. Brown is running for his fifth term to lead Buffalo, New York’s second-largest city.
And in Minneapolis, voters rejected a proposal to overhaul the city’s approach to policing. The measure, which would have replaced the police with a Department of Public Safety needed 51% of the vote to pass and failed to meet that threshold, according to the Associated Press.
The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last year touched off global protests for racial justice. -- Edward Dufner
Youngkin Cuts Into Democratic Strongholds (9:57 p.m.)
In populous Fairfax County, a Democratic bastion critical to McAuliffe’s fortunes, Youngkin’s vote percentage inched up after he took more than 40% of the election-day vote compared with 26% of the early and absentee vote.
Youngkin decisively defeated McAuliffe in Virginia Beach, an anchor of southeastern Virginia’s Navy-centric economy, and in Chesterfield County in suburban Richmond. Both jurisdictions voted for Biden in the 2020 election.
While McAuliffe beat Youngkin in Democratic-trending suburbs like Henrico County near Richmond and Prince William and Loudoun Counties in northern Virginia, Youngkin outperformed expectations and kept McAuliffe from rolling up huge margins. -- Greg Giroux
New Era Begins in New York City Government (9:50 p.m.)
Eric Adams, a Democrat, was elected as the 110th mayor of New York City on Tuesday. He had 74% of the vote with 22% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, which called the race 11 minutes after polls closed. Adams, a former police captain, will become the second Black man to run City Hall when he’s sworn in in January. David Dinkins, elected in 1989, was the first.
Democrat Alvin Bragg was elected Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, a role which will see him confront rising crime, calls for social justice and the prosecution of former President Donald Trump’s company.
Brad Lander, also a Democrat, is projected to become the city’s comptroller, according to NY1, the cable television station. He had 75% of the vote with 27% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Vowing to better track how the city spends more than $15 billion in federal pandemic relief, Lander, a City Council member from Brooklyn, called the election “a critical time in the life of our city as we come back from the pandemic,” in an interview Tuesday night on NY1. -- Shelly Banjo
Youngkin Making McAuliffe Win Ever More Elusive (9:35 p.m.)
Youngkin’s lead in Virginia means that it’s getting harder and harder for McAuliffe to find the votes he needs to overtake him.
Youngkin led decisively in Virginia Beach and Chesterfield County in suburban Richmond, two swing jurisdictions that voted for Biden in 2020.
In Democratic-trending suburbs like Henrico near Richmond and Prince William and Loudoun in northern Virginia, Youngkin held his own and avoided the trouncing losses Trump suffered there. Even in populous Fairfax County, a Democratic bastion critical to McAuliffe’s fortunes, Youngkin’s vote share inched up after winning more than 40% of the election-day vote compared with 26% of the early and absentee vote. -- Greg Giroux
Adams Supporters Talk About the Future (9:25 p.m.)
Friends and supporters of Adams filled his election night headquarters as polls closed at the New York Marriott in Brooklyn as “Happy” by Pharrell Williams played in the background. The crowd buzzed about promises Adams has made to decrease violent crime in the city.
Christian Pascal, an owner of the hedge fund hangout Hunt & Fish Club in Midtown Manhattan, said Adams would “put a shine” on New York City by making it safe.
Ava Mitchell, a retired New York police sergeant who worked with Adams as a transit officer decades ago, said the mayor-elect must focus on community policing to “bring the city together and heal the city.”
Michael Atherley, who’s known Adams since he was a police captain, said he’s looking for a mayor who will put the needs of ordinary individuals above corporations.
“I’m looking forward to the city going back to the people,” Atherley said. -- Amanda Gordon and Natalie Wong
More Strong Results for Youngkin (9:18 p.m.)
In addition to racking up good numbers in rural districts, Youngkin also was holding his losses down in outer-ring Washington, D.C., suburbs like Prince William and Loudoun counties, where Trump got blown out in 2020.
Even in Fairfax County -- critical to McAuliffe’s fortunes -- Youngkin was winning more than 40% of the Election Day vote, compared with just 26% of the early/absentee vote.
Two prognosticators said they expected Youngkin to win, though the Associated Press and all five major television networks said the race is too close to call. CBS News said the state results were now “lean Republican.”
Both Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report and the Decision Desk declared Youngkin the victor. -- Greg Giroux
Youngkin Finds Balance in Rural, Suburban Areas (9:01 p.m.)
If Youngkin does win the Virginia governor’s race, it will be because he moved out to a big lead by dominating rural precincts and holding his own against McAuliffe in some more populous jurisdictions.
McAuliffe needed a significant vote from Democratic strongholds to overcome the deficit. Youngkin led McAuliffe by 55%-45% out of more than 1.9 million votes cast in incomplete returns, according to the Associated Press. Turnout may exceed 3 million.
In jurisdiction after jurisdiction, Youngkin hit the vote-percentage targets he would need to win the governor’s race. For instance, he led McAuliffe 55%-44% in Chesterfield County, a suburban area near Richmond that he needed to win. -- Greg Giroux
Results From Virginia’s Fairfax, Chesterfield Counties (8 p.m.)
In Fairfax County, the most vote-rich jurisdiction in Virginia, McAuliffe led Youngkin by 74%-26% out of the first 133,810 ballots cast early or by mail before Election Day. Youngkin probably needs to win about 34%-35% in Fairfax, so he’d have to make up the early deficit from voters who cast ballots on Tuesday. Fairfax County cast 376,004 votes in the 2017 election for governor, so
there’s a lot left to count there.
Youngkin led McAuliffe 54%-45% out of the first 64,000 votes tallied in Chesterfield County south of Richmond, a jurisdiction that always reports its votes quickly. That’s a good early sign for Youngkin, who probably needs to win Chesterfield, which cast about 119,000 votes in 2017.
Early returns showed Youngkin rolling up huge margins in more rural Republican strongholds in the west and southwest. He had 82% in Rockingham County on the West Virginia border and 91% in Lee County in the southwestern corner of the state. In 2020, Donald Trump won 84% of the vote in Lee, his best showing in
the state. -- Greg Giroux
Some Places to Watch in Virginia: (7:30 p.m.)
With more than 1.1 million people, Fairfax County is an anchor of the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington and supplies more votes than any other Virginia county or city. Once a swing county, it’s now a Democratic stronghold: Fairfax gave just 28% of its votes to Trump in the 2020 presidential election and 31% to Republican Ed Gillespie in the 2017 gubernatorial election. So Youngkin doesn’t need to win Fairfax, or even come close -- a showing in the mid-30s would suffice for him.
Located northwest of Fairfax, high-income Loudoun is Virginia’s
fastest-growing county and trended sharply Democratic in the Trump years. Youngkin closed his campaign there with an election-eve rally in Loudoun that underscored how much Republicans want to stanch the bleeding in a county that’s been a focal point of culture-war fights over education curricula. Youngkin’s target percentage in Loudoun is in the low-to-mid 40s.
South of the state capital of Richmond, Chesterfield is a former
Republican bastion that’s become a politically competitive county and one that tends to report its vote totals quickly. It voted 52%-46% for Biden and 50%-49% for Northam. -- Greg Giroux
Groups Sue to Extend New Jersey Voting (7:12 p.m.)
Two non-profit groups filed a lawsuit against New Jersey to extend voting hours, citing reports that voters were being turned away because of “technical issues and delays.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, partnered as plaintiffs in the complaint. “No eligible voter should be disenfranchised due to a technical error. Racial justice - and the law - demand it,” the ACLU said in a statement on Twitter.
Polls in New Jersey are scheduled to close at 8 p.m. -- Stacie Sherman
Percentages to Watch for in Virginia: (6:30 p.m.)
Virginia is a “light blue” Democratic-leaning state: it voted 54%-44% for Biden over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and 54%-45% for Ralph Northam, a Democrat, over Republican Ed Gillespie in the 2017 governor’s election.
That means Youngkin must run, on average, about 5 percentage points ahead of Trump and Gillespie’s performance to defeat McAuliffe. Turnout should exceed the 2.6 million from the 2017 governor’s election and perhaps top 3 million, though that’s still much lower than the 4.5 million who voted in the 2020 presidential election. Elections for governor don’t draw as much voter interest as presidential contests.
This is Virginia’s first gubernatorial election since the state in
2020 eased restrictions on voting by absentee ballot. More than 1.1 million people voted early in person or by absentee ballot, compared to fewer than 200,000 in 2017. -- Greg Giroux
Adams Campaign Readies Cash Bar for Election Night Party (5:33 p.m.)
It may be a night to remember, if the preparations for the front-runner to win the New York City mayor’s race are to go by.
At the Eric Adams Election Night Party, doors to guests open at 9 p.m., when polls close. A cash bar will be set up outside the ballroom at the Brooklyn Marriott, while a DJ stand is already in place inside the room. Adams is the overwhelming favorite to defeat his Republican opponent. -- Amanda L. Gordon
Biden Predicts Wins for Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey (4:02 p.m.)
President Joe Biden predicted that Democrat Terry McAuliffe would win the governor’s race in Virginia on Tuesday, saying it will depend on turnout, and downplaying the impact of delays in passing his domestic agenda.
“I think we’re going to win in Virginia,” Biden said at a news conference in Glasgow, Scotland, at the conclusion of the United Nations COP26 climate change summit. Off-year elections are always difficult, he said. “I think it’s going to be very close. I think it’s going to get down to, as you all know, turnout.” -- Josh Wingrove and Jennifer Epstein
Potential Risk Seen for New Jersey’s Credit Quality (3:12 p.m.)
New Jersey could see political battles over its budget if the Republican candidate for governor defeats incumbent Phil Murphy, with the potential for damage to the state’s credit quality, according to Jennifer Johnson, director of municipal bond research at Franklin Templeton.
States where the governor’s political affiliation differs from the majority of the local government often struggle with fiscal stalemates that can affect a state’s credit quality, Johnson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television Tuesday.
New Jersey’s legislature is currently controlled by Democrats.
The Garden State has been on a “good path” toward addressing past financial struggles, according to Johnson. “With Covid and a significant amount of federal aid that’s come their way, they’re actually doing quite a bit better today than they were pre-Covid,” she said. -- Akayla Gardner.
Florida Mayor Race to Test Trump’s Election Pull (2:22 p.m.)
A mayor’s race in Hialeah, Florida, will be among those worth watching as observers gauge implications from Tuesday’s races for the 2022 and 2024 elections. That’s after former President Donald Trump waded in by endorsing Esteban “Steve” Bovo, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner running in a five-candidate race.
Trump backed Bovo in early October, and issued a statement on Monday telling his supporters not to forget to vote for Bovo because, “He is fantastic!”
Trump likes to brag that his endorsement record only has two losses. That’s true for the 2020 Republican congressional primaries -- which include unopposed candidates and incumbents who rarely lose. But his record is more mixed in general and special elections.
Besides Bovo, the other Trump-endorsed candidates on the ballot on Tuesday are Republican Youngkin in Virginia; Mike Carey, the GOP candidate in a special election in Ohio’s 15th House district; and former U.S. Representative Vito Fossella, who’s running for Staten Island borough president in New York. -- Mark Niquette
Virginia’s $80 Million Race (1:30 p.m.)
The Virginia governor’s race has become 2021’s most expensive in the U.S., with a combined $80.2 million spent in advertising by campaigns and issue groups, according to an analysis by AdImpact, a media tracking firm.
The deadlocked race has “easily” surpassed other contests this year, including the $63 million mayoral election in New York City and the recent $61 million governor-recall attempt in California, according to AdImpact.
New Jersey, meanwhile, had seen about $30 million in political ad spending as of Oct. 29, according to the firm.
In Virginia, McAuliffe had a slight edge over Youngkin, with 52% of total spending favoring him. Both campaigns have spent at least $1 million a week on ads since Aug. 29, the data show. -- Jill R. Shah
Virginia Set for Historic Lieutenant-Governor Election (1:05 p.m.)
The contest for Virginia’s lieutenant governor is poised to be historic, with the winning candidate set to be the first woman -- and woman of color -- to serve in the post, according to the Associated Press. Democrat Hala Ayala and Republican Winsome Sears are facing off for the position. -- Bre Bradham
Sabato Says GOP Voters Are Motivated (1 p.m.)
Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said the governor’s race will be a battle of turnouts. “So far it appears that Republicans have won that battle,” Sabato said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power With David Westin.”
Issues such as critical race theory are motivating Republican voters, and some Democrats who are dissatisfied with Biden are skipping the election, Sabato said. Even so, he said that McAuliffe has a shot if the Democrat’s estimates of early voting “are as good as he thinks they may be.”
Either a loss or a close victory for the Democrat -- in the wake of Biden’s big Virginia victory in 2020 -- would be “not good news” to deliver to donors as the 2022 midterms approach, Sabato said. “How do we justify asking you for tens of millions of dollars when it does not look good for us to hold either” chamber in Congress, he said. -- Simone Silvan
Murphy Taking Nothing for Granted in New Jersey (12:45 p.m.)
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he is not taking anything for granted despite an eight percentage point lead over his Republican opponent in polls before Tuesday’s election.
“Our work is not done, we sill have a ways to travel,” Murphy said in Newark as he met with campaign volunteers and local Mayor Ras Baraka.
As the candidates try to secure final votes there have been scattered reports of polling stations encountering issues with some of the new machines that have been installed in certain counties.
Murphy said, “It is my understanding that they have been largely addressed,” adding “I’m told that there were incidents, but that they were not widespread.” -- Skylar Woodhouse
Minneapolis Votes for Mayor, Police System (12:25 p.m.)
The race to lead Minneapolis is expected to be a toss-up as incumbent Democrat Jacob Frey battles against a field of 17 contenders in an election featuring ranked-choice voting. Minneapolis became one of first major cities to adopt the voting system in 2006.
Opponents argue that Frey, who’s running for a second term, failed to lead the city to recovery in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the protests for racial equality that it triggered -- not just in the Midwest metropolis, but nationwide.
A key ballot initiative could replace the city’s Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety. The proposal would remove sole control of the department by the mayor’s office and abolish minimum-funding requirements. Frey opposes that proposal, although his administration does advocate for reform. Sheila Nezhad and Kate Knuth, both considered leading candidates, support the change. -- Akayla Gardner
Critical Race Theory Debate Reflects Pandemic Frustrations (12:10 p.m.)
Conversations about how to discuss race in K-to-12 education are the result of an undercurrent of frustration from schooling at home during the pandemic, according to a senior adviser to outgoing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.
Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate to succeed Northam, has tapped into that frustration, Mark Bergman, a strategic partner at AL Media, a progressive creative firm, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Whether that is enough for him to overcome the Democratic numbers of this state is yet to be seen,” Bergman said.
Youngkin, who was once chief executive officer of Carlyle Group Inc., has campaigned on a pledge to ban critical race theory in the classroom. Parents, educators and politicians across the nation have been caught in a contentious debate about the concept, which has been traditionally taught at the university level. -- Akayla Gardner
Republican NYC Mayoral Candidate Sliwa Casts Vote ‘Catless’ (11:10 a.m.)
The campaign of Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee running against Eric Adams in the New York City mayoral race, took to Twitter to question a “No Pets in Pollsite” sign when the candidate voted Tuesday morning.
Before he voted, Sliwa was seen holding his cat Gizmo in a photo tweeted by New York Times City Hall bureau chief Emma Fitzsimmons. Election officials requested that the candidate to take off his jacket -- which had his name on it -- without success, and wouldn’t let him bring the cat inside, according to Fitzsimmons. Sliwa voted “catless,” his campaign tweeted. -- Bre Bradham
Ex-Mets Manager Valentine Vies for Mayor in Connecticut (10:00 a.m.)
Bobby Valentine, a former manager of the New York Mets baseball team, cast his vote Tuesday morning in the first election where his name was on the ballot. Valentine is running as an unaffiliated mayoral candidate in Stamford, Connecticut.
“I voted! Now it’s your turn,” Valentine tweeted. The former baseball player is promising to advocate for small businesses and use his managerial skills to run Connecticut’s second-largest city. The race is considered highly competitive as Valentine competes with Democratic State Representative Caroline Simmons, who upset the two-term incumbent mayor in the primary. -- Akayla Gardner
New York City Sees 222,000 Early, Absentee Votes (9:41 a.m.)
Roughly 220,000 people have already voted early or absentee in New York City’s mayoral election, according to the metropolis’s Board of Elections Executive Director Mike Ryan.
Ryan was on hand at the same Brooklyn elementary school in Crown Heights where front-runner Eric Adams was making an appearance. “There has been nothing systemic or any major issues that we’re dealing with this morning,” Ryan said.
Meantime, Adams fist-bumped a baby as he conversed with voters. Zulaykha Simon, a Brooklyn resident, said she was going to vote for Adams, but added he must do more than just photo ops and showing up at events. “A lot of people have been displaced from this community,” she said. “We need home buying opportunities in this neighborhood for people.” -- Fola Akinnibi
Republican Tours New Jersey Diners in Final Push (9:35 a.m.)
The Republican candidate for New Jersey governor, Jack Ciattarelli, planned a morning of touring the Garden State’s eateries in a final drive for votes in what’s turned out as a competitive race.
Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker, begins at the Randazzo Pastry Shop & Bakery in Raritan, in northern New Jersey, before going on to a pair of diners in nearby Bridgewater Township.
First-term Democratic Governor Phil Murphy led by eight percentage points in a recent poll, but frustration over high taxes has kept Democrats from winning second terms as governor for more than four decades.
De Blasio Eyes Governorship After Adams Succession (9:28 a.m.)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is term limited, said he was looking forward to handing the keys to City Hall over to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who is heavily favored to win Tuesday’s mayor’s race. De Blasio said he expects Adams to continue with policies that he championed -- universal Pre-K, affordable housing and policing changes -- and “take it to the next level.”
As for what’s next for de Blasio, the outgoing mayor has filed initial paperwork for a committee called “New Yorkers for a Fair Future” that sets him up for a run for governor.
Democrats Kathy Hochul, who took over the governor’s mansion after Andrew Cuomo resigned over sexual harassment claims, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have already declared their intentions to run in the 2022 race.
De Blasio declined to go so far as to declare his candidacy, but said he planned to continue in public service in the city and state. When asked on CNN if he wasn’t ruling out a run on Tuesday morning, he told viewers to “draw your own conclusions.” -- Shelly Banjo
More Than 700,000 New Jerseyans Have Voted Early (8:57 a.m.)
Even before Election Day, more than 730,000 New Jerseyans had voted. This is the state’s first election with early in-person voting. Residents were able to cast their ballots at certain polling places from Oct. 23-31.
As of Tuesday morning, 732,127 mail-in and in-person votes had been cast, according to the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics. That’s more than a third of the total votes cast in the 2017 race for governor.
The early-voting spread between Democrats and Republicans is about 59% to 23%, according to Rebovich. That’s about 260,000 more Democrats than Republicans casting their votes.
Vote-by-mail ballots can be returned until polls close at 8 p.m. -- Stacie Sherman
Tearful Eric Adams Casts Ballot as New York City Polls Open (8:09 a.m.)
The front-runner to become New York City’s next mayor, Eric Adams, saw emotion overcome him as he cast his vote at an elementary school on Tuesday morning. He cried as he recalled accompanying his mother, who passed away earlier this year, to a polling site in 1977.
“We won already,” he said with a framed photo of his mother, alluding to his success in rising from police officer to Brooklyn Borough president and now favorite to become mayor of the U.S. financial capital. “I’m not supposed to be here.”
Adams was among the first few dozen people to vote at P.S. 81 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood Tuesday in a contest he’s expected to win handily against his Republican opponent. -- Fola Akinnibi
Polls Open in Virginia, New York, New Jersey: (6:00 a.m.)
Although candidates showing up at their local polling place is an Election Day tradition, both McAuliffe and Youngkin have already voted, according to their campaigns. Adams, however, plans to vote at Public School 81 in Brooklyn, his campaign said.
Polls opened in Virginia, New Jersey and New York at 6 a.m.
The candidates campaigned into Monday evening, with Youngkin holding a rally in Leesburg, the county seat of Loudoun County. The county, a Washington suburb, has become a battleground in the race. McAuliffe held a Monday rally in Richmond, the state capital.
Although Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and a retired police captain, is heavily favored to win in New York, he led a rally in Harlem on Monday evening. Among his prominent supporters was state Attorney General Letitia James, who last week announced her candidacy for governor, something she reminded voters about at the rally. -- John Harney
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