Metro

The mayoral race’s not-so-obvious winners and losers

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Published Nov. 5, 2013, 9:02 p.m. ET
Charles Hynes (left) and Eva S. Moskowitz (right) who runs Success Academy Charter Schools, didn't make out so well Tuesday. But the Boston Red Sox have a newly powerful superfan.
Charles Hynes (left) and Eva S. Moskowitz (right) who runs Success Academy Charter Schools, didn't make out so well Tuesday. But the Boston Red Sox have a newly powerful superfan. AP/Getty Images/Gregory Mango

The Winners

  • Bill Hyers and Emma Woods: Things were looking grim for Bill de Blasio as late as June 26, when a Q poll gave him a dreary 10 percent in the multi-candidate Democratic primary. Hyers, director of President Obama’s re-election campaign in Pennsylvania in 2012,  and his deputy, Woods, become political rock stars when they steered de Blasio to a blowout victory.
ACORN’s Bertha Lewis, a longtime pal of de Blasio’s, has a lot to cheer about.
  • SEIU Local 1199: Lots of unions jumped on board de Blasio’s campaign after he won the Democratic primary. The giant Service Workers International Union was one of the union labor groups at his side before his poll numbers started soaring.
  • Park Slope: De Blasio’s home base. This is one neighborhood that no longer has to worry whether the snow will be plowed quickly.
  • Lobbyists: Billionaire Mayor Bloomberg didn’t need their money — he didn’t anyone’s money. But it’s back to real life with de Blasio.  Big name lobbyists, from Jim Capolino to Sid Davidoff, were early passengers on the de Blasio mayoral express. They can expect an open door at City Hall.
  • “Progressives“: All three citywide positions are held by officials who describe themselves this way — de Blasio, Public Advocate Tish James and Comptroller Scott Stringer.
  • Boston Red Sox: New York City’s No. 1 citizen is now rooting for the hated Sox. It doesn’t get any sweeter than this if you’re from Beantown.

    Why the long face? Probably because his driver will be out of a job.
  • Bertha Lewis: The former head of ACORN is very tight with deBlasio.

THE LOSERS

  • The Republican Party: After nearly 20 years of GOP rule, City Hall returns to the Democrats through an election that was never close.
  • Charter schools and Eva Moskowitz, who runs two dozen of them. De Blasio is planning to charge rent to profitable charters that have space in public schools, which could turn the system upside down. He’s got a bulls-eye on the back of longtime foil Moskowitz.
  • Charles (Joe) Hynes: No one can recall the last time an incumbent district attorney lost a primary. The Brooklyn DA has now managed to lose both a Democratic primary and a general election by continuing his run as a Republican.
Micah Kellner’s Assembly seat is in jeopardy, and Adolfo Carrion stumbled through an ineffective, Independent Party-backed mayoral run.
  • Central Park’s horse carriage drivers: Sooner or later, de Blasio has made it clear, he wants them to find new professions.
  • Adolfo Carrion: He was once a rising star in the Democratic Party. Then the former Bronx Borough President decided to run for mayor on the Independence Party line. He also denounced fellow Democrats. He never broke 3% in the polls. What was all this about again?
  • Micah Kellner: The Manhattan Assemblyman lost the Democratic primary for an Upper East Side city council seat after a female aide accused him of improper conduct. But he decided to keep running on the Working Families Party line — even though the party urged him to get out and told voters not to vote for him. Now he’s got to worry about losing his Assembly seat next year.