Bill de Blasio, the Brooklyn Democrat and sitting Public Advocate, was elected the 109th mayor of New York City on Tuesday, carried by a dramatic lead over Republican opponent Joe Lhota and widespread sentiment that the Bloomberg administration had turned against New York’s struggling middle class. The candidate is expected to deliver his victory speech in roughly eight-and-a-half hours before supporters gathered at the Park Slope Armory YMCA.

Have cable news on and Secretary of State sites loaded up? Good, let's all start looking for interesting nuggets as the returns from this off-year election night start coming in. At the Gawker Decision Desk tonight is Peter Feld.

With states that have been called so far added to the obvious gimmes, Obama is a scant six electoral votes from victory. A victory in any of the gray states on this map will give him the presidency.

At 8:45, the news for Obama is more than decent: