New York City mayoral election, 1993

New York City mayoral election, 1993

November 3, 1993

Candidate Rudy Giuliani David Dinkins Party Republican Democratic Alliance Liberal - Popular vote 930,236 876,869 Percentage 50.9% 48.0%

Results by Borough   Dinkins—60-70%   Dinkins—50-60%   Giuliani—60-70%   Giuliani—80-90%

Mayor before election David Dinkins Democratic Elected Mayor Rudy Giuliani Republican

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The New York City mayoral election of 1993 occurred on Tuesday, November 2, 1993, with Republican nominee U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph Giuliani narrowly defeating incumbent Democratic mayor David Dinkins.^[1] They also faced several third-party candidates.

The election was a re-match between the same two candidates from 1989, when Dinkins had narrowly defeated Giuliani to win the mayoralty.

History

Dinkins had narrowly defeated Giuliani in the previous election. As in his unsuccessful 1989 campaign, Giuliani also ran on the Liberal Party ballot, while the Conservative Party line was held by activist George Marlin.^[2] The city was suffering from a spike in unemployment associated with a nationwide recession, and with a rise in local unemployment rates from 6.7% in 1989 to 11.1% in 1992.^[3] Giuliani promised to focus the police department on shutting down petty crimes and nuisances as a way of restoring the quality of life:

It's the street tax paid to drunks and panhandlers. It's the squeegee men shaking down the motorist waiting at a light. It's the trash storms, the swirling mass of garbage left by peddlers and panhandlers, and open-air drug bazaars on unclean streets.^[4]

Under Dinkins' Safe Streets, Safe Cities program, crime in New York City decreased more dramatically and more rapidly, both in terms of actual numbers and percentage, than at any time in modern New York City history.^[5] The rates of most crimes, including all categories of violent crime, made consecutive declines during the last 36 months of Dinkins' four-year term, ending a 30-year upward spiral and initiating a trend of falling rates that continued beyond his term. Despite the actual abating of crime, Dinkins was hurt by the perception that crime was out of control during his administration.^[6][7][8]

Dinkins and Giuliani never debated during the campaign, unable to agree on how to approach a debate.^[2][9]

Jimmy McMillan, the founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, made his first run for political office in this election. In the course of his campaign, McMillan was at one point tied to a tree and doused with gasoline;^[10] he would later climb the Brooklyn Bridge and refuse to come down from it unless television stations broadcast his message.^[11] He was ultimately disqualified from the ballot for coming 300 petition signatures short of the 7,500 needed to qualify for the general election ballot.

Dinkins was endorsed by The New York Times and Newsday,^[12] while Giuliani was endorsed by the New York Post and, in a key switch from 1989, the New York Daily News.^[13] Dinkins earned 48.3 percent of the vote, down from 51 percent in 1989.^[1] Although he was a moderate with a substantial history of building coalitions and supporting Jewish causes,^[14] one factor in Dinkins' loss was his perceived indifference to the plight of the Jewish community during the Crown Heights riot. Another was a strong turnout for Giuliani in Staten Island; a referendum on Staten Island's secession from New York City was placed on the ballot that year by Governor Mario Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Dinkins defeated Giuliani handily in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, but Giuliani's margin in the other two boroughs was large enough to win the election. Giuliani won by a margin of 53,367 votes. He became the first Republican elected Mayor of New York City since John Lindsay in 1965.^[15]

Candidates

Rudy Giuliani- Republican Party (WON)
David Dinkins (incumbent)- Democratic Party
George J. Marlin- Conservative Party

Results

References

Mayoral elections in New York City
1897 1901 1903 1905 1909 1913 1917 1921 1925 1929 1932 1933 1937 1941 1945 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017