New York Mayor Bloomberg wins third term

Nov 4, 2009, 3:28 GMT

Michael Bloomberg - Bloomberg, who spent more than 100 million dollars of his own money on the campaign, took 51 per cent of the vote to 46 per cent for Democratic challenger William Thompson. © Janet Mayer / PR Photos

New York - New York elected billionaire Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday to a third four-year term as mayor.

Bloomberg, who spent more than 100 million dollars of his own money on the campaign, took 51 per cent of the vote to 46 per cent for Democratic challenger William Thompson.

Bloomberg, a former Republican who ran as an independent candidate, has been a popular manager of New York's economy and was credited with reducing crime for the last eight years.

But he drew controversy by asking the City Council to change the laws and extend mayoral term limits from two to three. In referendums, voters had rejected the idea of extending term limits in the 1990s.

The election result was closer than expected. Opinion polls ahead of the vote put the 67-year-old Bloomberg 12 percentage points ahead of Thompson, 56.

   Bloomberg's personal wealth is estimated at 16 billion dollars, fuelled by the namesake financial news service he founded decades ago.

Bloomberg was first elected mayor in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that left more than 2,700 people dead in New York, destroyed the World Trade Center towers and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage to the city's infrastructure, Wall Street firms and jobs.