Photo: Courtesy of BillThompsonForMayor.com.
Earlier this morning, William C. Thompson, Jr. announced his withdrawal from the New York City mayoral race as well as his endorsement for opponent Bill de Blasio. Thompson stated, "I am proud to stand here today and support Bill de Blasio to be the next mayor of the City of New York. Bill de Blasio and I want to move our city in the same direction. This is bigger than either of us." Following last week's Democratic primary, de Blasio had reached 40.2% of votes, while Thompson retained only 26%, making his chances of defeating de Blasio rather slim. De Blasio has responded graciously to Thompson's concession, stating "There is nothing more beautiful than Democratic unity, and thank you for it."
However, the voting process for this year's primary was not without controversy. Voters faced broken lever machines at polling stations, forcing them to fill out ballots by hand. As a result, nearly a week later, the Board of Elections still does not have official results, something that Thompson calls a "disgrace," citing that it would be impossible to campaign in the event of a runoff without knowing for days or week whether it would even happen.
Though Thompson does refer to the situation at hand a "disgrace," we admire that he does not blame the problematic voting system for such a large gap in numbers, nor does he even utter the word "recount." Thompson has ended his campaign with his integrity intact and a boost for Democratic unity. Now, we'll have to watch as de Blasio faces Republican mayoral candidate Joseph J. Lhota in November. (New York Times)