$102 million buys mayor third term in New York

NEW YORK – Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent at least $102 million to narrowly win a third term, breaking his previous records for the most expensive self-financed political bid in U.S. history, according to a report released Friday by his campaign.

By contrast, his challenger William Thompson Jr. will probably have spent $9 million on his first mayoral bid when all the bills have been paid.

Bloomberg had been widely predicted to win easily over his Democrat rival. But his push to overturn the city’s term limits law so he could run again turned off voters, along with the struggling economy, and Thompson came within 50,000 votes of unseating him.