Mayors Win Reelection in New York and Atlanta

Republican Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg won a second term in a blowout Tuesday, easily defeating former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer by drawing a wide majority of Democrats away from his opponent in this strongly left-leaning city.

Bloomberg, the billionaire former executive who was elected four years ago as fires still smoldered at the World Trade Center, said he would be thrilled if he won “by one vote or more.”

With 98% of precincts reporting, Bloomberg had 708,609 votes, or 58%, compared with Ferrer’s 471,795 votes, or 39%.

“All I wanted, and you gave it to me, was four more years,” Bloomberg told a packed house at his victory celebration. “Thank you for letting me realize my greatest dreams in the greatest of all cities.”

Atlanta’s first female mayor, Shirley Franklin, trounced two little-known challengers to win a second term.

In another mayoral contest, voters in St. Paul, Minn., punished Mayor Randy Kelly on Tuesday for endorsing President Bush a year ago, denying the Democrat a second term in Minnesota’s capital city. Former City Council member Chris Coleman, also a Democrat, routed Kelly 70% to 30%. No sitting St. Paul mayor had lost a campaign since 1972.

In Detroit, challenger Freman Hendrix led incumbent Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick with more than two-thirds of the precincts reporting, putting Kilpatrick at risk of becoming the first Detroit mayor since 1961 to be defeated for reelection.

Elsewhere, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making their state the 19th to take that step.

In Maine, however, voters rejected a conservative-backed proposal to repeal the state’s new gay-rights law.

Voters in Washington state expanded a ban on indoor smoking to include bars, restaurants and nontribal casinos.