A Comprehensive List Of Progressive Victories On Election Day
PETER DREIER – NOVEMBER 7, 2013, 10:41 AM EST
On Tuesday, Bill de Blasio won a landslide victory to become the mayor of New York City, voters in New Jersey and SeaTac, Wash. supported minimum wage hikes and the Illinois legislature voted to legalize same-sex marriage. These are among the progressive victories that swept across the country.
Despite a few setbacks, progressives had much to cheer about, sensing that the tide is turning against the unholy alliance of big business, the Tea Party and the religious right. Growing protests -- such as the "Moral Monday" movement in North Carolina, militant immigrant rights activism, battles to protect women's health clinics from state budget cuts, local challenges to Wall Street banks that are foreclosing on "underwater" homeowners, strikes by low-wage workers, civil disobedience actions to challenge voter suppression and student campaigns against global energy corporations -- reflect a burgeoning progressive movement that is beginning to have an impact on elections.
By far the most impressive symbol of this rising tide is de Blasio's landslide win, which the New York Times called "a sharp leftward turn for the nation's largest metropolis." De Blasio campaigned on a bold progressive platform, promising to address the city's widening income inequality, gentrification, and hollowing out of the middle class. De Blasio, the city's public advocate, trounced Republican Joe Lhota (a transportation official and long-time advisor to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani) by a 73 to 24 percent margin. His victory represents a rejection of 20 years of business-oriented municipal policies under Giuliani and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
De Blasio pledged to end the city's racist "stop and frisk" police practices, to expand affordable housing and to increase pre-kindergarten classes by raising taxes on residents earning over $500,000, subject to approval from the state legislature. After winning a come-from-behind victory in the Democratic primary, de Blasio built a powerful grassroots campaign that drew on unions, community organizations and other progressives. On Election Day, more than 10,000 de Blasio volunteers were turning out voters.
In addition to this overwhelming mandate, the new mayor will have a more progressive city council to work with. The 51-member council will have at least 21 new members, many of them supported by unions and the Working Families Party, which also played a big role in de Blasio's victory. The council's Progressive Caucus is likely to double in size from 10 to 20. Council member Brad Lander, a former community organizer, co-founder of the Progressive Caucus, and key de Blasio ally, was re-elected by a wide margin in his Brooklyn district.
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