1981 New York City mayoral election

1981 New York City mayoral election

November 3, 1981

Candidate Ed Koch Frank J. Barbaro Party Democratic Unity Alliance Republican Popular vote 912,622 162,719 Percentage 74.6% 13.3%

Borough results Koch:      60–70%      70–80%

Mayor before election Ed Koch Democratic Elected Mayor Ed Koch Democratic

The New York City mayoral election of 1981 occurred on Tuesday, November 3, 1981, with Democratic incumbent Mayor Ed Koch being re-elected to a second term by a landslide margin.

Koch, a Democrat, also received the endorsement of and ran on the Republican Party ballot line.

Koch received an overwhelming 74.64% of the vote citywide. Koch also swept all five boroughs by landslide margins, breaking 60% of the vote in Manhattan and breaking 70% of the vote in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

Koch's closest competitor was the short-lived New York Unity Party nominee Frank J. Barbaro, who received 13.31%.

Finishing in a distant third and fourth were the Conservative Party nominee, John A. Esposito, who received 4.92%, and Liberal Party nominee, Mary T. Codd, who received 3.41%.

Koch defeated his nearest competitor by a landslide 61.35% Democratic margin of victory and was sworn into his second term in January 1982.

Results

General Election
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
Democratic – Republican	Edward I. Koch	189,631	132,421	261,292	275,812	53,466	912,622
Unity	Frank J. Barbaro	56,702	22,074	48,812	31,225	3,906	162,719
Liberal	Mary Codd	14,228	5,902	7,958	8,795	4,835	41,718
Conservative	John Esposito	6,682	7,634	15,388	26,515	3,881	60,100
							1,222,644

Koch had 738,288 Democratic votes and 174,334 Republican votes. Others = 45,485. Jeronimo Dominguez – Right to Life – 32,790 2.7%; Judith Jones – Libertarian – 6,902 0.6%; Wells Todd – Socialist Workers – 5,793 0.5% Koch won the Democratic Primary with 347,351 votes (59.8%), defeating Barbaro who had 209,369 votes (36.0%) and Melvin Klenetsky who had 24,352 votes (4.2%). Koch also won the Republican Primary, defeating Esposito by 44,724 to 22,354.