Election Day has arrived, which means if you live in New York City, you have until 9pm to go to the polls to cast your vote for the next mayor. Is it even worth trekking to your local polling station given Mike Bloomberg locked in a third term ages ago? Probably not, but you'll be doing your democratic duty and for that you can be proud. (If you skip it and you're a Bill Thompson supporter, take comfort in the fact that a low turnout is something Thompson is hoping for.) If you live in New Jersey, it's a very different story. Gov. Corzine and Chris Christie are neck in neck, every vote will count, and a winner may not emerge until late into the night. So decide between the lady-loving bald dude or the thieving fat man and get to it. [Photo: Flickr]

The only race tomorrow that will have anything to do with national political trends is a tiny congressional district in upstate New York. But there are other races that everyone will talk about as if they mean something.

Tomorrow is Election Day! You will probably not vote, because there are no contested races for anything important in 90% of the nation. But if you are a New Yorker, we have one message: don't vote for Michael Bloomberg.

If you skipped the debate between Mike Bloomberg and Bill Thompson, you probably made the right choice. For better or worse, nothing that happened last night is going to change what happens next week. And if you just wanted to watch two politicians verbally pummel each other for an hour, you could turn on a cable news channel at any time of the day or night. Then again you did miss opportunity to see the bilingual mayor casually break into Spanish for no apparent reason!

Bill Thompson doesn't stand much of a chance at winning next week's mayoral election. But the two will face off once again this evening for their second and final debate. (Thompson will have to deliver "the political equivalent of an Oscar-performance" if he has any hope of turning things around, says Michael Barbaro of the Times.) Don't think the mayor is coasting on his lead, or on the $85 million he's spent on his campaign thus far. He's taking tonight's debate seriously: "Mr. Bloomberg seems to be taking no chances on Tuesday: there are no events other than the debate on his schedule, allowing him to spend the day preparing for the confrontation." Either that or he's figured out that it's an excellent excuse to take the day off and chill out at home, which it is. [NYT]

With the elections eight days away, Mayor Bloomberg has widened his lead. He's now ahead by 18 percentage points, according to a new Quinnipiac poll, which is up from 16 points last week. [NYT]

According to today's Times, mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is "starved for publicity." We have a feeling that the article in which that tidbit appears wasn't the sort of publicity he had in mind, unfortunately:

Bill Thompson now trails Mayor Bloomberg by 16 percentage points in the polls, which is a bit of a setback for Thompson since he'd narrowed the lead to 9 percentage points back in September. But shouldn't Bloomberg's lead be bigger right now, especially given how much cash he's spent on his wildly overpriced campaign?

Poor Bill Thompson. As much as he'd like to hear President Obama publicly endorse his candidacy for mayor, he just can't seem to get him to utter the words. At last night's Democratic National Committee event at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Obama did make mention of Thompson. ("Our candidate for mayor, my friend Billy Thompson, is in the house.") But it clearly wasn't what Thompson had been hoping for. When asked if he considered the Obama shout-out to be an endorsement—he did say "our candidate," after all!—Thompson put it bluntly: "No. Do you consider that an endorsement?" [Politico, NYT, NYDN]

As if Bill Thompson doesn't have enough to worry about as it is as he faces off against Mike Bloomberg, it seems that some New Yorkers have yet to figure out that the low-profile candidate happens to be black: "Ask Malcolm Woods, an African-American barista at the Common Grounds coffee shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, if he is inspired that there is a black candidate for mayor, and you get a surprised look. 'There is?' he asked." [NYT]

Were you, like us, a little perplexed last week when Mayor Bloomberg indicated that he planned to campaign this weekend with Rudy Giuliani by his side? One thing we didn't take into account (but which explains everything): If you'd like to engage in a little vintage NYC fear-mongering and race-baiting in the last few weeks of a campaign, there's really no better person out there to guide you. [NYT, previously]

At the debate earlier this week between Michael Bloomberg and Bill Thompson, the mayor said he thought Rudy Giuliani would make a good governor. The remark generated boos from the crowd (and rightly so), but it looks like the mayor wasn't paying much attention.

Did you watch the debate between Mike Bloomberg and Bill Thompson last night? Or did you conclude it would be a big waste of time since the election was predetermined before the campaigning even began and you figured that if you did tune in and you happened to find yourself enamored with Thompson, it would only lead to heartbreak next month when he's clobbered at the polls?

You know that Mike Bloomberg is running for a third term next month, of course. And you may even be familiar with the Democrat running against him, Bill Thompson. (If you haven't had a chance to familiarize yourself with Thompson's platform, you can watch him go up against Bloomberg in a debate this evening.) But are you familiar with the seven other people who will be on the ballot this November?

President Obama endorsed Bill Thompson in the race for mayor today. But he managed to do so without uttering the words himself (Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs delivered the news) and without referring to Thompson by name (Gibbs described as the "Democratic nominee"). And then he followed up by complimenting Mayor Bloomberg, just to hedge a bit more:

commenting on how New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has played the fat card in his election campaign against the Republican challenger, to the New York Times.

Michael Bloomberg's reelection campaign is costing him $15,000 per hour, in case you were wondering. Of course, that's just a drop in the bucket for the richest man in New York. At that rate, he could afford to go on campaigning for the next 133.1 years. [AP]

Only about three people turned up to vote yesterday, but New Yorkers did pick Democratic nominees for public advocate and comptroller (both of whom are virtually guaranteed to win the general election come November): Bill de Blasio won the race for public advocate; and John Liu is the nominee for comptroller. [NYT]

Today is the Democratic primary runoff for comptroller and public advocate. As expected, the turnout has been incredibly light. (So light, in fact, that some poll workers have been nodding off on the job, reports the Times.) If you'd like to do your civic duty today—or just startle a napping poll worker—you have until 9PM to do so and you can find your local polling station here. [NYT]

Did you know that the run-off elections for comptroller and public advocate take place in NYC tomorrow? Probably not, since turnout at the polls is expected to be so low that pollsters are having a hard time coming up with accurate predictions about who's going to win when John Liu faces off against David Yassky to be NYC's next comptroller and Bill de Blasio goes up against Mark Green in the battle to be public advocate. But that means if you do plan to vote, you might actually make a difference! Just something to keep in mind! [Crain's, NY1]