1997 New York City mayoral election

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1997 New York City mayoral election
Flag of New York City.svg
  1993 November 4, 1997 2001  
  Rudy Giuliani 2000 (cropped).jpg Ruth Messinger 2012 (cropped).jpg
Nominee Rudy Giuliani Ruth Messinger
Party Republican Democratic
Alliance Liberal
Popular vote783,815549,335
Percentage57.7%40.5%

NYC Mayoral Election 1997 Results by Borough.svg
Borough results
Giuliani:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%
Messinger:     50–60%

Mayor before election

Rudy Giuliani
Republican

Elected Mayor

Rudy Giuliani
Republican

The New York City mayoral election of 1997 occurred on Tuesday November 4, 1997, with incumbent Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani soundly defeating Democratic Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and several third-party candidates. This was the first time Brooklyn voted for a Republican since 1941.

Contents

Democratic primary

Candidates

Withdrew

Declined

Campaign

The primary campaign was largely uneventful until April. Messinger, the front-runner, ignored her opponents in favor of attacking Giuliani. [3]

Sharpton, for his part, ran a "street-corner, subway-stop campaign that raised little money, aired no television commercials and hired no consultants." Instead, he relied on his high name recognition among New Yorkers from his organization on behalf of Tawana Brawley, Yusef Hawkins, and the Central Park Five and his prior runs for United States Senate in 1992 and 1994. [3]

Results

Initial results indicated that Messinger had received 39 percent of the vote, thereby triggering a run-off against Al Sharpton, the runner-up. The run-off was scheduled for September 23. [3] Observers initially blamed Messinger's "bland and often bumbling primary campaign" for the close results. [3]

However, absentee ballots gave Messinger 40.159 percent of the vote, 658 votes more than necessary to win the nomination outright. [4]

Democratic primary results by New York Assembly district 1997 New York City mayor Democratic primary by State Assembly district.svg
Democratic primary results by New York Assembly district
1997 Democratic mayoral primary
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Ruth Messinger
Democratic Al Sharpton
Democratic Sal Albanese

After the Board of Elections cancelled the run-off, Sharpton filed suit, charging "such substantial fraud and irregularities in the conduct of the primary election ... that it is impossible to render a determination as to who was rightfully nominated." [4] Sharpton claimed, among other things, that non-Democrats were allowed to vote, that more votes were counted in some districts than there were voters, that some registered voters were wrongly turned away from polling locations, and that some voting machine were broken. [4]

Though she agreed that the vote-counting process "took too long", Messinger claimed victory on the basis of the Board of Elections decision. [4]

General election

Candidates

In the general election, Giuliani had the Republican and Liberal ballot lines, but not the Conservative line. Giuliani had run on the same two ballot lines in his unsuccessful 1989 mayoral campaign and in his winning campaign in 1993. [5] Conservative Party leaders were unhappy with Giuliani on ideological grounds, citing the Liberal Party's endorsement statement that Giuliani "agreed with the Liberal Party's views on affirmative action, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits." [6]

Campaign

Giuliani's opponent in 1997 was Democratic Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, who had beaten Al Sharpton in the Democratic primary on September 9, 1997. [7] The results of the Democratic primary were contested in court by Sharpton, who argued that he qualified for a run-off election with Messinger. [8] Sharpton waited until October to endorse Messinger against Giuliani, and the endorsement was perceived by some as tepid. [9]

Giuliani ran an aggressive campaign, parlaying his image as a tough leader who had cleaned up the city. Giuliani's popularity was at its highest point to date, with a late October 1997 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll showing him as having a 68% approval rating; 70% of New Yorkers were satisfied with life in the city and 64% said things were better in the city compared to four years previously. [10]

Throughout the campaign, Giuliani was well ahead in the polls and had a strong fundraising advantage over Messinger. On her part, Messinger lost the support of several usually Democratic constituencies, including gay organizations and large labor unions. [11] All four daily New York newspapers— The New York Times , New York Daily News , New York Post , and Newsday —endorsed Giuliani over Messinger. [12] Two televised debates were held, but Messinger was unable to get traction in highlighting that Giuliani was interested in higher office and might not serve out a full second term. [13] Messinger claimed that the real mayor was not in evidence during the debates: "Let me point out that we're certainly seeing the nice Rudy Giuliani tonight." [13]

Debate

1997 New York City mayoral election debate
No.DateHostModeratorLink Republican Democratic Socialist Workers
Key:
 P Participant  A Absent  N Not invited  I Invited  W  Withdrawn
Rudy Giuliani Ruth Messinger Olga Rodriguez
1 [14] Oct. 9, 1997 El Diario La Prensa
New York One
New York Urban League
New York City Campaign Finance Board
WNYC-FM
Dennis Walcott YouTube PPP

Results

In the end, Giuliani won 58% of the vote to Messinger's 41%, becoming the first Republican to win a second term as Mayor of New York City since Fiorello H. LaGuardia in 1941. [7] Voter turnout was the lowest in 12 years, with only 38% of registered voters casting ballots. [15] The margin of victory was not quite as large as pre-election polls had predicted; [16] analysis of the vote showed that Giuliani made modest gains amongst African-American and Hispanic voters while maintaining his solid base of white, Asian and Jewish voters from 1993. [16]

In his acceptance speech, Giuliani acknowledged the image of divisiveness he had acquired during his first term and vowed to correct it: "Whether you voted for me or against me, whether you voted or didn't vote, I'm your Mayor, this is your administration. We have to do a better job of serving all of you. We have to reach out to all of you. And if we haven't, I apologize. I'm sorry and it is my personal commitment that we will try, endlessly and tirelessly, to bring all of you into the kind of success and optimism we have in this room." [15]

In her concession speech, Messinger said, "Tonight, we lost a battle but the war goes on ... Our schools still don't work ... and they are still worth fighting for. We gave it everything we had." [7]

CandidatePartyManhattanThe BronxBrooklynQueensStaten IslandTotal%
Rudolph Giuliani Republican-Liberal 138,71881,897173,343 176,75145,120615,82955.2%
50.9%43.6%53.3%64.6%78.6%
Ruth Messinger Democratic 128,478102,979145,34992,19410,288479,28842.9%
47.1%54.8%44.7%33.7%17.9%
All others5,5342,9016,2594,5861,96121,2411.9%
2.0%1.5%1.9%1.7%3.4%
T O T A L
272,730187,777 324,951273,53157,3691,116,358100%

[17]

Voter demographics

The 1997 NYC mayoral election by demographic subgroup [18]
Demographic subgroupMessingerGiuliani % of
total vote
Total vote4357100
Ideology
Liberals 554333
Moderates 3861 42
Conservatives 2372 23
Party
Democrats 5445 61
Republicans 692 19
Independents/Other3465 19
Gender
Men3662 45
Women4554 55
Race
White 2176 53
Black 7920 21
Hispanic 5743 20
Age
18–29 years old4059 15
30–44 years old4750 33
45–59 years old4256 26
60 and older3267 26
Family income
Under $15,0005642 16
$15,000–30,0004750 21
$30,000–50,000425724
$50,000–75,000316720
$75,000–100,00033619
Over $100,000287110
Union households
Union 455242
Non-union376258
Religion
Protestant554313
Catholic326641
Other Christian603710
Jewish277223
Other64347
None56426

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References

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