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NEW YORK: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg won re-election Tuesday in an unexpectedly tight race, US media reported, after the tycoon spent a record amount of his own fortune on the campaign.
Bloomberg had been forecast to win by double digits, but squeaked through with 50 per cent against 46 per cent for his Democratic challenger Bill Thompson, local NY1 television and the New York Times reported.
Bloomberg is an independent, but ran on the Republican ballot. His main challenger, Thompson, had received almost no support from the camp of US President Barack Obama.
The 67-year-old media tycoon, who first took office in 2001, is widely credited with turning once gritty and chaotic New York into one of the cleanest, safest and most efficient US cities.
He has overseen a surge in luxury developments, barred traffic from teeming Times Square, made restaurants display calorie counts, and banned smoking in bars, with a view to extending the ban to city parks.
Yet two controversies marked his path to a third four-year term in a city reeling from the Wall Street crash.
One is the astounding use of his estimated US$17.5 billion fortune to dominate the campaign.
He burned through about a million dollars a day in the final weeks, with the total bill forecasted to exceed US$100 million.
Bloomberg's spending over three elections has smashed the previous US record for self-financed political campaigns, making Thompson's US$6 million war chest resemble spare change.
The founder of Bloomberg LP, an international news and financial data giant, also sparked anger by strong-arming the City Council into scrapping a two-term limit approved in a referendum, thereby enabling him to run for a third time.
- AFP/yb
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