By Edith Honan and Hilary Russ
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Public Advocate Bill de Blasio won the most votes in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday but it was not immediately apparent whether he could avert a runoff, according to early results and exit polls reported by local media.
The winner needs at least 40 percent of the vote or will face the second-place candidate in the race of Democratic hopefuls to succeed three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg in running the most populous city in the United States.
With nearly 90 percent of precincts reporting results, de Blasio had 40 percent over former city comptroller Bill Thompson with 26 percent and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn with 15 percent, according to NY1 television.
A poll cited by the New York Times also showed de Blasio, a lanky 6-foot-5 and one of the more liberal candidates on the ballot, with a strong lead.
De Blasio ran on a platform opposing stop and frisk - a police tactic that overwhelmingly targets young black men and hailed by Bloomberg as critical to fighting crime. He also has proposed raising taxes on the city's highest earners to pay for universal pre-kindergarten.
Thompson lost the 2009 race to Bloomberg, who has been mayor since January 2002 and is leaving office due to term limits. Quinn, who would be the city's first female and openly gay mayor if elected, was seen as most likely to follow Bloomberg's moderate policies.
On the Republican side, Joe Lhota, a deputy to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was the projected winner of New York City's Republican mayoral primary, local media reported.
The former head of the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had 52 percent of the vote over grocery chain billionaire John Catsimatidis, who had 41 percent, with about 80 percent of precincts reporting, according to NY1 television.
Lhota faces an uphill battle against the Democratic nominee in the city of 8.3 million people, where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one.
"IMPERFECT MESSENGER"
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who saw his lead vanish after news that his penchant for texting women lewd pictures of himself had not ended, placed last among the major candidates with 5 percent.
"We had the best ideas. Sadly, I was an imperfect messenger," Weiner said in a concession speech at a midtown Manhattan bar. His wife, Huma Abedin, a former aide to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, was not seen beside him.
Sydney Leathers, who came forward this summer to say she and Weiner had frequent sexually charged conversations online and over the phone, arrived at his primary night party.
"I'm here celebrating his impending doom. His loss, here at his victory party," Leathers said.
She called his campaign "embarrassing" and said he might have a political future "after he gets himself together."
"I mean, I'm one to talk," she said. "But he needs help."
New York Democrats have seemed to respond not just to de Blasio's liberal, anti-Bloomberg message, but to his family, including his wife, Chirlane McCray, who is black.
Four years ago, when Bloomberg announced he would seek a change in the city's term-limits law to run for a third term, de Blasio was one of the most visible opponents. That fight helped de Blasio win the job of public advocate.
In Brooklyn's trendy Gowanus neighborhood, a mostly young crowd gathered at de Blasio's primary night celebration party, where food trucks offered lobster rolls, gourmet hot dogs and pizza from a wood-fired stove.
"I just feel like I can trust him and he's not part of the same Bloomberg framework as Quinn," said Casey Palmer, 27, who works for MTV. She said she especially liked de Blasio's stances on the controversial police stop-and-frisk tactic and immigration.
Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned the state's top office in 2008 amid a prostitution scandal, conceded defeat in the Democratic race for New York City Comptroller on Tuesday, his spokesman said.
Spitzer, who was seeking a political comeback as the "Sheriff of Wall Street," a moniker he earned for taking on big banks as state attorney general.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will face Republican John Burnett, who was unopposed, in the November 5 general election for comptroller.
(Additional reporting by Hilary Russ and Francesca Trianni; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Bill Trott)
http://news.yahoo.com/blasio-leads-york-democratic-mayoral-primary-exit-polls-021607160.html
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