Ferrer Has 39.96%, Hoping to Avoid Runoff with Weiner

It's deja vu all over again! In the recent Democratic mayoral primaries, runoffs were threatened and this year's was no exception as campaigns squirmed in too-close-to-call limbo. While former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer has essentially 40% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff, he's about 0.04-0.05% short of a perfect, unequivocal 40%, which translates to a handful of votes. And Congressman Anthony Weiner, who has 29%, will be demanding that every vote be counted, including 8,422 valid absentee ballots. Which means that the results for the Democratic primary might not be known for days, even a week. Ferrer was in the odd position of being so close to victory, but not guaranteed of it, last night at his party, while Weiner's party got more interesting as Ferrer's numbers dropped.

At Mayor Bloomberg's big Brooklyn shindig, his campaign was shocked and then thrilled with the results, as a runoff or figuring out whether or not there is a runoff will be distracting to the campaigns. Most pundits think that Weiner is a winner either way, as his primary showing for a politician from NYC (he did serve on the City Council early on in his career) was impressive. Some say that Weiner's campaign, which focused on class instead of race, "will become a new political paradigm in the city."

The NY Times on third place C. Virginia Fields and fourth place Gifford Miller. If there is a runoff, it will be on September 27.

Photograph of Ferrer with his family from the New York Times