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De Blasio wins NY mayoral race, Christie re-elected in NJ, McAuliffe takes Virginia

Democrat Bill de Blasio will succeed Republican Michael Bloomberg as mayor of New York, while Chris Christie is retained as New Jersey governor and Terry McAuliffe wins Virginia

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Bill de Blasio. Photo: AP

Liberal Democrat Bill de Blasio cruised to victory on Tuesday in the race to succeed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, marking the first time a Democrat has captured City Hall in two decades, local media reported.

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De Blasio, the city’s public advocate, beat Republican rival Joe Lhota after a campaign in which he addressed economic inequality in America’s most populous city, CNN, New York 1 and reported.

“Thank you, New York City,” de Blasio’s campaign tweeted just after the  close of polls, together with a photo showing the presumed winner together with  his wife and two children.

“This election is a very stark contrast between two very different candidates. Mr Lhota clearly wants to maintain the status quo in the city. I’m calling for fundamental change,” de Blasio said after voting in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning.

De Blasio won a hotly contested Democratic primary in September by focusing on the controversial “stop-and-frisk” police tactic endorsed by Bloomberg and by criticising the billionaire mayor for presiding over “two New Yorks” - one rich, one poor.

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De Blasio also promoted expanding access to pre-kindergarten, proposing a tax on the city’s highest earners to pay for it, and said he would fight community hospital closures.

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