Bill Thompson is abandoning his mayoral candidacy for New York City and is reportedly throwing his support behind Bill de Blasio instead, Yahoo! reported Monday.
Bill Thompson will be abandoning his bid to become New York City's mayor and will be throwing his support behind Bill de Blasio instead. De Blasio is famous for being the city's public advocate who made the "stop and frisk" policy for police authorities as well his campaign against wealth inequality.
The 60-year-old former mayoral candidate, Bill Thompson, is to make the announcement at exactly 11:00 a.m. ET on the steps of City Hall, his campaign team confirmed, and multiple news outlets had already reported that he will be dropping out from the mayoral race.
His announcement reportedly came amid the city's preparation to count nearly 80,000 paper ballots to determine whether de Blasio had won 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote, which is said to be necessary in avoiding a runoff with Thompson, the second place finisher.
The city's Board Of Elections had already completed its re-count of more than 5,000 voting machines around 9 p.m. Sunday night and is now set to being counting some 78,000 more Monday.
"We've finished the machines and we are updating the report," BOE spokeswoman Valerie Vasquez said.
The New York Post reported that Thompson is now convinced that de Blasio won the 40 percent requirement, prompting him to make his decision.
Yahoo! reported that with 99 percent of the ballots counted, de Blasio led Thompson at 40.3 percent to 26.2 percent.
De Blasio is now to face off against former MTA chief and former Rudy Giuliani aide Joe Lhota, who reportedly won the Republican primary a week earlier.
Thompson's decision to bow out allows Democrats to consolidate support around their candidate before the Nov. 5 election.
"The sooner we find a Democratic candidate the better, as far as I'm concerned," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who won the primary race for city comptroller, said.
"You know, we've got to think about November. We've got to unite the Democratic Party, so I hope that continues to play out in the coming days," Stringer added.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio are to join Thompson at City Hall for his official announcement, according to The New York Post.
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
