1,012,633 831,772 42.36% 34.79% Start date November 4, 1969 | 831,772 542,411 34.79% 22.69% | |
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Winner John Lindsay | ||
The New York City mayoral election of 1969 occurred on Tuesday, November 4, 1969, with incumbent Liberal Party Mayor John Lindsay elected to a second term.
Lindsay defeated the Democratic candidate, New York City Comptroller Mario Procaccino, and the Republican candidate, state senator John Marchi.
Lindsay received 42.36% of the vote to Procaccino's 34.79%, a Liberal victory margin of 7.57%.
Marchi finished a distant third with 22.69%.
Linsday, a liberal originally elected in 1965 as a Republican with Liberal Party support, had lost the Republican primary to Marchi, but still managed to be re-elected as a Liberal. Lindsay also received the Independent ballot line.
Procaccino also received the Civil Service ballot line, while Marchi received the Conservative Party ballot line.
Reflecting the 3-way split in the race, with each candidate garnering double-digit support citywide, the five boroughs split between all 3 candidates. Lindsay scored a big victory in Manhattan with 67.1% of the vote, while also winning a narrow plurality in Queens with 36.3% of the vote. Procaccino won pluralities by small margins in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Marchi, a state senator from Staten Island, won that borough with 62.0% of the vote.
Linsday would be sworn in to his second and final term in January 1970.
Results
Note: In one of the most unusual primary seasons since the conglomeration of greater New York, the incumbent Mayor (Lindsay) and a former incumbent (Robert F. Wagner, Jr.) both lost their parties' primaries. Procaccino won with less than 33% of the vote against four opponents, which inspired the use of runoffs in future primaries. In the general election, Lindsay carried Manhattan (the only borough he had carried in losing the Republican primary to Marchi, 107,000 to 113,000) as he did in 1965, but he was only 4,000 votes ahead of giving first place in Queens to Procaccino. Turnout dropped to 2.4 million from 2.6 million in 1965. (In the same election, Lindsay's 1965 opponent Abe Beame was easily returned to his old job of Comptroller.)