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De Blasio Elected NY Mayor In Landslide

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Bill de Blasio is the first Democrat elected mayor of New York City in a generation.

And he will rise to power hoping his landslide victory will grant him a mandate to push forward an ambitious liberal legislative agenda and tackle a looming fiscal crisis.

He was trouncing Republican rival Joe Lhota by nearly 50 percentage points in incomplete, unofficial returns on Tuesday.

He now will go to Albany claiming a mandate for a tax hike on the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten.

De Blasio, the public advocate, will also soon pick a new schools chancellor and police commissioner and negotiate new contracts with the city's unions. The unions want $7.8 billion in back pay.

De Blasio takes office Jan. 1 replacing outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.