At $69 a Vote, Letitia James Beats Daniel Squadron in Public Advocate Runoff

In unofficial but conclusive results, City Councilmember Letitia James won the Democratic primary runoff election for NYC Public Advocate by a margin of almost 20 percent over state Sen. Daniel Squadron.

James received 59.4% of the vote (111,654) vs. Squadron's 40.6% (76,223), as of 12:13 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to abc election returns.

There doesn't seem to be a Republican running for Public Advocate -- the person next in line to take over should anything happen to the mayor -- so it is likely that James will be the city's next public advocate.

James has effectively advocated for her district all along -- standing up for the Pacific branch library, union wages, renters rights, and more recently, Long Island College Hospital, and standing against stop and frisk and the closing of day care centers. Impressively, she was a thorn in Mayor Bloomberg's side when she blew the whistle on the corrupt CityTime deal, and she consistantly fought against the use of public domain in the Atlantic Yards project.

So we have pretty high expectations.

The NYC Board of Elections says that this runoff election cost the city $13 million dollars. If roughly 188,000 people voted, that means each vote cost roughly $69.

More on this story as it unfolds.

Photo: MK Metz

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