Joe Lhota’s greatest hurdle as he decides whether to run for mayor as a Republican is the overpowering edge that the Democratic Party ballot line offers in this town.
There are 4.2 million registered voters in New York City. Nearly 2.9 million are Democrats. A mere 460,129 are Republicans. The better than 6-to-1 gap explains why the Democratic nominee has a built-in edge in the November general election.
The city’s last two Republican mayors, Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, both had second-ballot lines. But the Liberal Party that boosted Giuliani barely exists now, and the Independence Party that helped Bloomberg isn’t politically in tune with Lhota.