8,964

Votes INeedCoffee contributor Bill Talen, aka Rev. Billy, received as the Green Party candidate in New York City’s 2009 mayoral election, 0.8% of all votes cast.

4

Rev. Billy finished fourth in the mayoral race, behind victorious incumbent Michael Bloomberg (R),  William C. Thomson Jr. (D), and Conservative Party candidate Stephen Christopher.  Rev. Billy quadrupled the number of votes received by Libertarian Party candidate Joseph Dobrian.

3rd

On Election Day, Rev. Billy wrote in his campaign blog about the difficulty that third-party candidates faced in getting their voices heard:

We read articles about how Bloomberg chooses his leather coat for his latest ad, or where he parks his Falcon 900 jet. I would laugh at this if I wasn’t running, but as a candidate I directly feel how tortured these writers have become, putting up walls against the inflow of crucial and new ideas, but also refusing to write about things far more interesting. I’m ending our campaign today by walking through the three downtown parks, Washington Square, Union Square and Tompkins Square. I’ll carry my small electronic bullhorn without a permit, as I have throughout the campaign. I’ll talk to small groups of folks about how our voices carry, and how our voices don’t carry, in this strange $100 million Playstation that Bloomberg’s turned our city into.

Tags: bean-counting, election, election day, new york city, revbilly