Hawthorne Street : Prospect Lefferts, Brooklyn: Mathieu Eugene Returns to City Council

As expected, Councilman Mathieu Eugene has won the Democratic primary for the 40th district with a solid 59% of the vote. Also as expected, total voter turnout was low, with only 6500 ballots cast. Rickie Tulloch finished a distant second with 24% and Rock Hackshaw third at 17%. The race isn't technically over, as there is a candidate running on the Libertarian ticket in November but... come on. (The Republican nominee was disqualified.)

Congratulations, Councilman Eugene.

In other election news, Bill Thompson easily won the Democratic nomination and gave a victory speech that I think was supposed to be rousing but was really kind of embarrassing. Nobody goes from Accountant-In-Chief to populist firebrand and he looked silly. I don't know who I'm supporting in November yet but I hope Mr. Thompson finds his inner sane person before then.

The two other races of significance are both going to runoffs because nobody received 40% of the vote. Queens Councilman John Liu (38%) fell around 10,000 votes short of what he needed to avoid a runoff with Brooklyn's David Yassky (30%). For Public Advocate, Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio (32%) upset I-don't-know-what-he's-been-doing-for-the-last-eight-years Mark Green (30%), which I think came as a surprise to both of them. I'm pretty sure Mr. de Blasio was shooting for the runoff and has to feel very confident about his chances.

The run-off elections for Comptroller and Public Advocate will take place in two weeks, on Tuesday, September 29th. Voter turnout in run-off elections like this is shockingly low, making your vote count more than it usually does.

One final note: congratulations also go to my coworker, Cy Vance, who won the Democratic nomination for Manhattan District Attorney. I didn't "endorse" him because I doubt any of HS's 250 daily readers vote in Manhattan, but I was happy to see the result all the same.