Frank J. Barbaro 162,719 60,100 13.31% 4.92% | 912,622 162,719 74.64% 13.31% Start date November 3, 1981 | |
 | ||
Winner Ed Koch | ||
The New York City mayoral election of 1981 occurred on Tuesday, November 3, 1981, with Democratic incumbent Mayor Ed Koch being re-elected to a second term by a landslide margin.
Koch, a Democrat, also received the endorsement of and ran on the Republican Party ballot line.
Koch received an overwhelming 74.64% of the vote citywide. Koch also swept all five boroughs by landslide margins, breaking 60% of the vote in Manhattan and breaking 70% of the vote in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.
Koch's closest competitor was the short-lived New York Unity Party nominee Frank J. Barbaro, who received 13.31%.
Finishing in a distant third and fourth were the Conservative Party nominee, John A. Esposito, who received 4.92%, and Liberal Party nominee, Mary T. Codd, who received 3.41%.
Koch defeated his nearest competitor by a landslide 61.35% Democratic margin of victory and was sworn into his second term in January 1982.
Results
Koch had 738,288 Democratic votes and 174,334 Republican votes. Others = 45,485. Jeronimo Dominguez – Right to Life – 32,790 2.7%; Judith Jones – Libertarian – 6,902 0.6%; Wells Todd – Socialist Workers – 5,793 0.5% Koch won the Democratic Primary with 347,351 votes (59.8%), defeating Barbaro who had 209,369 votes (36.0%) and Melvin Klenetsky who had 24,352 votes (4.2%). Koch also won the Republican Primary, defeating Esposito by 44,724 to 22,354.