NY Election Results: Bill De Blasio Defeats Joe Lhota In Mayoral Race

New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is the city's next mayor.

The Democrat defeated Republican Joe Lhota in Tuesday's election after maintaining a wide lead in the polls throughout the race. In September, de Blasio bested a crowded field of candidates in the Democratic primary, including presumed frontrunner Christine Quinn.

Lhota, a onetime deputy mayor to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the former head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had trailed de Blasio in the polls since the primaries.

The Associated Press offered details on the race Tuesday:

While polls show that New Yorkers largely approve of Bloomberg's record, those same surveys show a hunger for a change in style and tone, which is why Bill de Blasio is poised to become the first Democrat elected mayor in more than a generation.

De Blasio, who as the city's elected public advocate acts as an official watchdog, has positioned himself as a clean break with the Bloomberg years, promoting a sweeping liberal agenda that includes a tax increase on the wealthy to pay for universal pre-kindergarten and improved police-community relations.

Those tactics, and a pledge to reach out to New Yorkers who feel left behind by what they believed were Bloomberg's Manhattan-centric policies, have been rewarded in the polls. De Blasio, 52, has been up nearly 40 percentage points in every survey conducted since the general election matchup was set nearly two months ago.