Four More Years, Ugh

Expect Mayor de Blasio to take Tuesday’s results as a mandate — although they weren’t — and worry. With a citywide 7-to-1 advantage in Democratic to Republican voters, the mayor won re-election by a bit better than 2-to-1 over GOP challenger Nicole Malliotakis, with other candidates grabbing around 6 percent.

He pulled fewer votes than he did four years ago, whereas Michael Bloomberg gained from 2001 to 2005. Indeed, it looks as if de Blasio this year (as in 2013) didn’t match Bloomberg’s 2005 number.

However you cut it, this was no show of enthusiasm.

But it leaves the mayor with four more years in power and no reason to be con- cerned about what city voters will think of his second-term performance, because he can’t run for a third term.

Will he back the NYPD against the anticop fanatics now that rising crime rates can’t hurt him at the polls? Will he pay attention to any day-to-day business, or focus mainly on bolstering his national progressive reputation?

What might he do in an effort to “go big” to make his mark in a quest for higher office? How will he handle the challenge if tax revenues drop off ?

Somehow, in some way, Bill de Blasio wants to go down in history as transformative. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope his staff can convince him he’s already achieved that goal.