The mayor said on his local WOR-AM radio show Friday that the election issue may be his biggest regret as he reflects on his 12-year tenure. He leaves office Dec. 31.
The Republican-turned-independent mayor says an unaffiliated voter "doesn't get a real, practical chance" to participate. He says in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, "it's only the primary that matters."
With that said, no Democrat had won the mayor's office in a generation before Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio.
Bloomberg championed a 2003 ballot initiative that would have instituted nonpartisan city elections. It failed by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
