New York’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio is yet another blow to the nation’s big cities. The WSJ reports:
In 2000, Republicans led five of the nation’s largest dozen cities. By the end of 2012, they no longer led any. In Tuesday’s election, the candidate favored in opinion polls to be Seattle’s new mayor, Ed Murray, appealed to voters partly by citing his role in passing the largest tax increase in Washington state’s history to fund transportation improvements. In Boston, State Rep. Martin Walsh was elected after squaring off against another progressive Democrat to succeed Thomas Menino, a Democrat who built strong relationships with the city’s business community.
Liberals are emboldened, said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. He said that after decades of feeling that Democrats had to move to the center to be elected, “we’re seeing more and more in the Democratic Party a sense of confidence and outspokenness among progressives.”