Thompson to End Bid for Mayor

The Former Comptroller Will Concede to Democratic Nominee Bill de Blasio.

By MICHAEL HOWARD SAULCONNECT

Democrat Bill Thompson will drop out of the race for New York City mayor at an event at City Hall Monday morning, avoiding a runoff and making Public Advocate Bill de Blasio the party's nominee, a person familiar with the matter said.

In Tuesday's primary, Mr. de Blasio won 40.3% of the vote, just above the 40% needed to avoid an Oct. 1 runoff, according to a preliminary count that night. But Mr. Thompson, the second-highest vote getter in the primary, declined to concede because he said he wanted to wait for an official count.

In recent days, Mr. Thompson faced increasing pressure from officials in the Democratic Party to end his second bid for the city's top job. On Monday, he will announce that he is ending his campaign, the person said.

Once Mr. Thompson's campaign scheduled the event, a group of his supporters, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and U.S. Reps. Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries, sent out a news release announcing their support for Mr. de Blasio.

Mr. de Blasio will face Joe Lhota, the GOP nominee, in the Nov. 5 general election.

Mr. Thompson and Mr. de Blasio have had numerous conversations since primary night, and plans for the event were finalized Sunday, a person said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state's top Democrat, is expected to attend the event at City Hall. He has previously said he would not get involved in the race for mayor, but some political observers have speculated he would ultimately endorse his party's nominee.

The other major contenders for the Democratic nomination are expected to make official endorsements of Mr. de Blasio in the coming days.

Mr. Thompson, the only black candidate in the race, was the party's nominee in 2009. He came within 5 percentage points of unseating Mayor Michael Bloomberg, despite the mayor outspending him by roughly 11 to 1. This year's bid for City Hall is expected to be his last.

The Board of Elections is expected to release the official count of the machine vote on Monday afternoon. One person familiar with that process said the official count does not show Mr. de Blasio losing any ground. The board is also expected to begin counting tens of thousands of paper ballots on Monday.

Mr. Thompson's campaign co-chairwoman Merryl Tisch, who had been seen as prematurely declaring his campaign dead the day after the election, had little to say on Monday about Mr. Thompson's withdrawal from the race.

"His decision," she said repeatedly.

Ms. Tisch said she had spoken with Mr. Thompson over the weekend but declined to say what was said.

Asked if she had any thoughts about Mr. de Blasio, Ms. Tisch said, "We'll see what Billy [Thompson] says."

—Lisa Fleisher contributed to this article.