As we mentioned back in September, the key to governing the city at this critical juncture is nursing a more diverse economy back to health while maintaining and building on the gains of recent years in education, business, public safety and the vibrant culture that defines New York City. We think Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is running as a Republican and Independent, is best qualified for this job.

Throughout the past eight years, Bloomberg has advanced ambitious plans to overhaul the largest public school system in the country, mitigate traffic and congestion, increase and improve green space, foster arts and culture and rezone the city to fit the residential and business needs of tomorrow—all while driving crime to record lows and keeping a vigilant eye on a terrorist threat that still lingers. His goal has been to enhance New York City’s best attributes to make it a place where people want to live, do business and visit. A keen businessman, the mayor understands that these three goals are inextricably linked, and he has the foresight and drive to make them all priorities. We strongly endorse him for re-election.

Comptroller: John Liu

During the primary, we found Democrat John Liu to be an estimable candidate who had both bold ideas for the office and the financial know-how to tackle its fiscal responsibilities. His Republican opponent, Joe Mendola, certainly has the right background for the job, but he is so focused on painting Liu as a political insider that he hasn’t articulated a clear vision for the office. Liu will surely bring the same tenacity to the comptroller’s duties as he does to City Council committee hearings, and we endorse him for the general election.

Public Advocate: Bill de Blasio

We found Democrat Bill de Blasio to have the most far-reaching vision for this office, and the most detailed plans for executing that vision on a shoestring budget. We hope he can leverage the public advocate’s meager resources
by working with organizations like Transportation Alternatives and the Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University Law School. His Republican opponent, Alex Zablocki, simply doesn’t have the same innovative ideas for making the most of this citywide ombudsman office. We endorse de Blasio for public advocate.

Manhattan District Attorney: Cy Vance

We were highly impressed with all three candidates running for the Democratic nomination for Manhattan District Attorney this September. Cy Vance, who won the primary and is running unopposed in the general election, plans to develop a community-based justice model to better attack problems such as domestic violence and discrimination against immigrants. He has also promised to tackle the criminal court backlog and form special units for mental health issues and hate crimes. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is the most important prosecutorial body in the country, and we have no doubt that Vance will build upon the impressive work of longtime D.A. Robert Morgenthau. We enthusiastically endorse Vance for Manhattan D.A.

Manhattan Borough President: Scott Stringer

If anyone has put to rest calls to abolish the office of borough president, it’s Democrat Scott Stringer. While the City Charter does sketch out rather limited powers for this position—issuing advisory opinions on large developments, appointing community board members and making assignments to various boards—Stringer has squeezed every ounce of productivity out of this role. He’s brought an unwavering spotlight to classroom crowding problems, come up with concrete ways to help preserve small businesses and made greening the city and healthy eating top priorities. His Republican opponent, David Casavis, is running to abolish the office altogether; we suspect he just lacks imagination. Stringer gets our wholehearted support.

City Council District 4: Dan Garodnick

During his four years in office, Democrat Dan Garodnick has shown that he’s a rising star in city government. He’s given Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants a strong voice during turbulent times, and he won key concessions for the East River Realty project. We endorse him for re-election.

City Council District 5: Jessica Lappin

Jessica Lappin, a Democrat, learned this district inside and out while serving as chief of staff to her predecessor, Council Speaker Gifford Miller. She’s led the fight for safer crane operation and has worked tirelessly to get funding for three new waterfront parks. We endorse her for re-election.

Moments after the polls closed, the general election between Thompson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began, with both candidates lobbing blistering attacks at each other.

Thompson reiterated his claim that Bloomberg favors the wealthy, and that he overturned the will of the voters with his extension of the city’s two-term limit for local office holders. Using the slogan, “Eight is Enough,” the Democratic mayoral nominee began soliciting $8 donations.

Though Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican nomination, he held a lavish party along the Hudson River in Manhattan. There, the mayor slammed “politics as usual,” which is part of his new ad slogan, “Progress. Not Politics.”

One sign that the mayor might not be a shoe-in for re-election were the results of several City Council. Backlash to the term-limit extension appeared to play a role in ousting four incumbents, with two more hanging on by a handful of votes, certain for a recount. Nearly all of the Council members who survived contentious races received less than half of the total vote. Even Council Speaker Christine Quinn only received 52 percent of the vote against two spirited challengers.

“Even though few voters voted, the ones who did spoke loud and clear in turning out and voting against incumbents,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good-government group, Citizens Union. “That is a loud shout to the city’s elected leadership.”

The biggest winner in Manhattan on primary night was Cy Vance, who is all but assured to be Manhattan’s next district attorney, with no Republican running for that seat. With 44 percent of the vote, Vance beat 2005 candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder and newcomer Richard Aborn.
The nail-biter primary races were for public advocate and comptroller, and no candidate broached the 40 percent mark needed to avoid a run-off. The top two contenders in each race will now face each other in a run-off election on Sept. 29.

Public advocate hopefuls Mark Green and Council Member Bill de Blasio will face each other. In an upset, de Blasio bested Green, the former public advocate who is trying to reclaim his seat, by a margin of 32 percent to 30 percent.

Council Member Eric Gioia and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel received 18 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively.

Green, with wide name recognition, was expected to be in the lead, but de Blasio, who enjoys immense union support, pulled ahead. Green is trying to paint de Blasio as a political insider, tying him to the Council’s slush fund scandal. Green said that de Blasio doled out taxpayer money to nonprofits, which then donated the money back to his campaign.

For his part, de Blasio has criticized Green for being absent from city issues since he left office in 2001, after failing to beat Bloomberg in the mayor’s race that year.

For comptroller, Council members John Liu and David Yassky will face off again in the Sept. 29 run-off. Liu nearly avoided a run-off with 38 percent of the vote. Yassky, from Brooklyn, came in second with 31 percent.

Queens Council member Melinda Katz got 20 percent of the vote and David Weprin, also a Queens Council member, came in last place with 11 percent.

Liu, from Queens, is seeking to be the first Asian-American elected to citywide office. He has strong union support, including the labor-backed Working Families Party, and is popular among minority voters.

While running third in the polls, Yassky leapt to second place after key endorsements from the ITAL New York Times ITAL, the ITAL Daily News ITAL and his former boss, Sen. Chuck Schumer. Yassky has pulled support from his home borough of Brooklyn and Manhattan’s liberal base.

“We’ve had a great first phase of the campaign, and now we’re going to make it count by building on our momentum over the next two weeks,” Yassky wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

In the East Side’s District 4, two Republicans faced off for the right to go against Council Member Dan Garodnick—an uphill battle, considering the incumbent’s popularity and the district’s Democratic lean. Ashok Chandra, a native Texan and member of the New York Young Republican Club, beat the Manhattan Republican Party’s candidate, Neal, D’Alessio, 477 to 239.

“My campaign has brought a lot of people out of the woodwork; Young Republicans who in the past haven’t been Republicans. They’re very conservative about fiscal issues,” Chandra said in an interview before the primary.

Tony Avella

Mayor
If going against Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considered a long shot for Comptroller William Thompson, then Council Member Tony Avella is the longest of shots. Avella, from Queens, has spent most of his Council career as a firebrand who often casts the lone-dissenting vote on legislation. He wants to empower community boards to take a greater role in local development, pledges to increase the involvement of parents and teachers in education policy making and supports commercial rent control.

William Thompson

Mayor
When most prominent Democrats declined to take on Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Comptroller William Thompson was the last one standing, facing only Avella, a long-shot aspirant, in the primary. As comptroller, Thompson’s alternative investment strategies helped cushion the pension fund when the economy collapsed. He knocks the mayor for being overly focused on Wall Street and real estate, a strategy that he says has harmed the middle class, and he promises to diversify. He would create an independent body to study student progress, and wants to mitigate the taxes, fees and fines that he says burden small businesses.

Melinda Katz

Comptroller
In the City Council, Melinda Katz chairs the powerful Land Use Committee, which oversees all development projects that need zoning changes. That has helped her raise campaign cash from real estate interests, but Katz says she has also pushed for affordable housing, fair labor wages and buildings that fit within a community’s context. Before her Council election, she worked in the Queens borough president’s office and she was a State Assembly member. As comptroller, Katz promises to invest a portion of pension funds in successful but debt-strapped companies that do business in New York, to help spur local job creation.

John Liu

Comptroller
John Liu is a reserved City Council member from Queens, but he also has a reputation for being a pit bull during committee hearings. As chair of the Transportation Committee, he claims to be the first elected official to discover the now-infamous “two sets of books” the MTA was using. Liu promises to use his tenacity when auditing city agencies, which the comptroller must do every four years. He also wants to audit and track stimulus funds coming to the city. On pensions, Liu wants to return to traditional, low-risk, low-yield investment strategies.

David Weprin

Comptroller
David Weprin wants voters to understand that he knows the buck. The Queens Council member chairs the Finance Committee, which must pass the city’s budget. He was also Gov. Mario Cuomo’s state superintendent on banking. His position in the Council has baggage, as he was partly blamed for not catching the slush fund scandal sooner. Nonetheless, he is touting his experience and his willingness to stand up to the mayor when appropriate, as he did when opposing the term-limit extension. Weprin plans to open satellite comptroller offices that would focus on financial literacy and assistance programs.

David Yassky

Comptroller
In a field of comptroller candidates from Queens, David Yassky is the lone Brooklynite. He is also the only candidate who supports the creation of a new level of pension benefits that would ease the city’s budget woes, but that remains unpopular with unions. Yassky points to his record in the City Council, where he worked to eliminate waste in the Housing Department, assisted in closing a tax loophole used by luxury developers and supported creating gas-electric hybrid taxis. He promises to invest a small portion of pension funds into biotechnology companies and increase transparency; during the campaign, he put the city’s budget online, at www.ItsYourMoneyNYC.com.

Bill de Blasio

Public Advocate
Council Member Bill de Blasio became Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s chief antagonist during the fight to extend term limits. The successful extension ruined de Blasio’s plans to run for Brooklyn borough president, but he found a spot in the public advocate’s race. He was quickly endorsed by most of the city’s elected officials. As the city’s ombudsman, de Blasio said he would stand up to a powerful mayor when necessary and promises to work collaboratively with other elected officials to get results.

Eric Gioia

Public Advocate
This two-term Queens Council member built a network of support from unions and young professionals, winning his first term without the backing of the borough’s Democratic organization. Gioia is capitalizing on this “outsider” status in his bid to be the city’s ombudsman and is touting his effective use of publicity to drive policy change. In 2007, he went on food stamps for a week, then pushed for legislation that would put applications online. He says he will continue working to improve schools, fighting for economic justice and holding government accountable.

Mark Green

Public Advocate
Voters may remember Mark Green as the city’s first public advocate who served during the Giuliani years, when he sued the mayor for withholding information on racial profiling and police misconduct, and he served as a general foil to many administration policies. He promises to continue that “aggressive progressive” platform, standing up to City Hall and helping government better serve New Yorkers. Since his unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2001, he has been president of Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network that was owned by his real estate mogul brother, Stephen.

Norman Siegel

Public Advocate
This is civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel’s third bid for public advocate, following his unsuccessful challenge of incumbent Betsy Gotbaum in 2005. Siegel, who says the public advocate needs to be visible, a big mouth and a fighter, points to his record representing groups like the 2004 Republican National Convention protestors and West Harlem tenants in their battle against Columbia University. He plans to recruit hundreds of volunteers to be “surrogate public advocates” in each community, and create an “Institute of Advocacy” to help New Yorkers make themselves heard.

Richard Aborn

Manhattan District Attorney
Richard Aborn, a former assistant district attorney under Robert Morgenthau, stormed into the district attorney race as a dark-horse candidate. Yet his campaign has gained momentum after most of the borough’s elected officials, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, endorsed his campaign. A gun-control advocate who was behind the federal assault weapons ban and the Brady Bill, Aborn is running on a platform of providing alternatives to incarceration, rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders and expanding the use of technology in the office.

Leslie Crocker Snyder

Manhattan District Attorney
This year, Leslie Crocker Snyder is mounting her second attempt to be Manhattan’s top prosecutor. In 2005, the former State Supreme Court judge ran against incumbent Robert Morgenthau, who had been in office since 1974. Snyder, a former assistant district attorney, was the first woman to prosecute homicides, founded Manhattan’s Sex Crimes Bureau and co-authored the Rape Shield Law. As district attorney, she would create a Second Look Bureau to address wrongful convictions and connect prosecutors to local law enforcement, civic and religious groups.

Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Manhattan District Attorney
Retiring prosecutor Robert Morgenthau chose Cy Vance, his former assistant district attorney, to be his successor. Vance, the son of President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of state, has been a defense lawyer in Seattle, Wash. for most of his career, litigating white collar crimes at a national firm. He plans to develop a community-based justice model in neighborhoods to better attack problems such as domestic violence and discrimination against immigrants. If elected, Vance would tackle the criminal court backlog and form special units for mental health issues and hate crimes.