No Democratic Runoff in the New York Mayor's Race as Bill Thompson Quits

Bill Thompson will quit the New York mayor's race on Monday, instead of waiting for an official recount to see if Bill de Blasio got enough votes to avoid a runoff in the Democratic primary.

Bill Thompson will quit the New York mayor's race on Monday, instead of waiting for an official recount to see if Bill de Blasio got enough votes to avoid a runoff in the Democratic primary.  That leaves de Blasio to focus on campaigning against Republican candidate Joe Lhota. Thompson will make the announcement on Monday in a "unity" press conference with de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York Post reports.

Unofficial tallies showed de Blasio with 40.3 percent of the vote, just over the 40 percent threshold required to avoid a runoff. Thompson had won 26.2 percent. On Thursday night, Thompson wasn't ready to quit, one of his strategists told the New York Daily News. "This is about mathematics, not emotion," the strategist said. "In the end, Billy will look at the numbers and do what he has to do." Absentee ballots from areas where Thompson had performed well had not yet been counted. But New York Democrats had begun pressuring Thompson to give up, The New York Times reported. Even if de Blasio earned less than 40 percent of the vote, Thompson would have struggled to overcome him in a runoff.