Brooklyn City Councilmember Bill de Blasio and former City Public Advocate Mark Green came out swinging as they gear up for their runoff to determine the Democratic Party nominee for the city’s top watchdog position.
De Blasio and Green finished first and second in the public advocate race.
However, neither candidate finished with the necessary 40 percent of the vote, forcing the Sept. 29 runoff.
With 100 percent of the votes counted, the unofficial tally gave de Blasio 112,781 votes or 32.62 percent of the vote to Green’s 106,838 or 30.90 percent of the vote.
Queens City Councilmember Eric Gioia had 63,706 or 18.42 percent and Norman Siegel had 49,398 or 14.29 percent of the vote.
Imtiaz Syed finished last with 13,045 or 3.77 percent of the vote.
In his winning remarks, de Blasio noted how his campaign came from humble beginnings and went far in such a short period of time.
“We are challenging Mark Green to 10 debates on all issues in all five of the boroughs,” de Blasio told excited supporters at the Water Street Cafe in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn Heights.
Green countered with a press release the day after the primary election accusing de Blasio of giving away millions of dollars from the City Council slush fund and in return getting back hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.
“I’ve worked for years on campaign finance reform,” said Green. “We did not at that time expect Councilmembers like de Blasio to abuse the budget process to milk campaign gifts from taxpayer expenditures.”
De Blasio spokesperson Matt Wing responded that New Yorkers are seeing the same old Mark Green whose record of divisive, negative campaigns is unprecedented.
“Last night the voters chose new leadership for the future over divisive politics of the past. Today Mark is attacking local non-profit organizations that provide vital services for their community, including after-school programs, homelessness prevention services, and much more,” he said.