Dante, Chiara, Bill and Chirlane de Blasio celebrate Tuesday night. Landslide for N.Y. liberal de Blasio

NEW YORK — Democratic New York is back — though really, it was here all along.

Bill de Blasio trounced Joe Lhota on Tuesday to return City Hall to Democratic hands for the first time since David Dinkins was ousted in 1993, riding the coalition of traditional liberals, young progressives, politically active unions and minority voters that’s come to dominate city politics.


His win brought what was under the surface to the top: Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg won the past five citywide elections on the strength of their mega-personalities and the particularities of the circumstances, not because New York was a secret bastion of Republican politics.

( SEE RESULTS: 2013 elections)

“The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and we set forth on it together, as one city,” de Blasio said, first in English, then in Spanish, from a podium topped by a “PROGRESS” sign, looking out at a throbbing crowd that packed the streets waiting to get into the Park Slope Armory YMCA .

De Blasio won his race by a landslide — 45 percentage points, according to results available as he declared victory — and he is joined by other city candidates like Comptroller-elect Scott Stringer and Public Advocate-elect Tish James, who embrace ideas that would be called class warfare anywhere else in the country. They want to drive up union membership, raise taxes and regulate Big Business.

To date, the progressivism de Blasio represents has essentially been a theory popular among idealistic local lefty politicians. The new mayor and his ideological allies coming into every other position of power in January are going to be giving it an extremely high-profile test.

The people celebrating Tuesday night are confident that their victories will send a message that will be heard far beyond the city. De Blasio’s win, to hear his core supporters tell it, is part of a shift in Democratic politics that began with Eric Schneiderman’s New York attorney general win in 2010, continued with Elizabeth Warren’s Senate win last year in Massachusetts and got an across-the-board boost in New York City on Tuesday.

( QUIZ: Do you know Bill de Blasio?)

It’s a fitting coincidence that the new film of “Great Expectations” movie had its premiere in New York on Tuesday night.

“Despite what you might have heard, we are one city,” Lhota said in his concession speech, knocking de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” message. “I do hope our mayor-elect understands this before it’s too late.”

De Blasio rebutted that line of thought as he claimed victory.

“That inequality, that feeling of a few doing very well while so many slip further behind, that is the defining challenge of our times, because inequality in New York is not something that only threatens those that are struggling,” he said. “The stakes are so high for every New Yorker, and making sure no sons or daughters of New York are left behind defines the very promise of our city.”

The marching orders from the voters to reach high are clear, Stringer told POLITICO ahead of his win.

( Also on POLITICO: Election 2013: McAuliffe edges Cuccinelli, Christie coasts)

“They want a progressive government that’s going to fight Washington, fight for our fair share of resources,” he said. “We’re just not going to stand around and get pushed around.”

As much as this race became a referendum on rejecting Bloomberg, New York 1 exit polls still showed the mayor at 52 percent approval. In part, that’s because despite running three times on the Republican line, most people saw Bloomberg as practicing his own brand of politics: fiscally cautious, socially laissez-faire, progressively interventionist on public health and other issues — and above all, hyper-attentive to management.

Tuesday’s overwhelming numbers aside, most people expect New Yorkers won’t have much patience for any of the progressive experimentation de Blasio and his allies are eager to do if it comes at the expense of the city running less smoothly than they’ve come to expect.

But the numbers and the exit polls leave little doubt about how much voters wanted change.

“They were willing to give some benefit of the doubt in terms of innovation and change under a Bloomberg administration, but too much of his administration at the end of the day became status quo,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), who campaigned with de Blasio at a subway stop in Crown Heights on Tuesday afternoon. “And that’s why I think the pendulum has swung — because New York has always been a Democratic city.”

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Bloomberg tended to present the situation as a calculation: Rents are high and constantly going up, but that, he said, is the natural consequence of low crime, better schools, investing in the arts and public health, and improving public spaces like city parks. Want rents to go down? he would sometimes challenge people, then tell him which of those things he should stop concentrating on. And anyway, attracting more wealthy people means attracting more taxes to pay for services.

De Blasio’s challenge is to show that there’s an alternative formula that works: Keep crime down, schools good and the city more livable while making a sharp turn away from the policies that have defined New York the past 12 years. Make the city as desirable but more affordable.

“We aren’t a luxury resort that people flock to for an indulgent vacation,” said John Del Cecato, a consultant who oversaw de Blasio’s campaign. “We’re a city of neighborhoods in all five boroughs — and if people continue to get priced out of living here, we’ll cease to be a great city.”

“The road ahead will be difficult, but it will be traveled. Progressive changes won’t happen overnight, but they will happen,” de Blasio said. “There will be many obstacles that stand in our way, but we will overcome them.”

People will be watching a few insider jobs — first deputy mayor and deputy mayor for operations to see what kind of administration de Blasio really plans to run, as well as whether he veers more toward management experience or political patronage for some of his more prominent and powerful commissioners.

He’s prepared to move quickly and tactically in selecting a new police commissioner and schools chancellor, as well as posts like deputy mayor for economic development, aware how much depends on staving off for as long as possible any disappointment from the extremely high expectations that have carried him this far.

Policy won’t be the only thing changing.

Bloomberg, despite his self-made fortune, carries himself with an unmistakable patrician, Brahmin of the Upper East Side air. He’s got a daughter who’s an equestrian champion. He paid for the renovation of Gracie Mansion out of his own pocket, though he never slept a night there instead of in his multi-million-dollar 79th Street townhouse.

De Blasio is purposefully more haggard, a proud adopted Brooklynite who tends to put his hand on people and call them “brother” when he talks. His teenage son is best known for the giant afro he sported in the primary campaign ad that helped make him a star and cement the candidate’s primary surge. His biggest asset is a second home next door to his house in Park Slope that he rents out.

Uniquely in American history, the leader of a city’s government was also its richest man, its biggest philanthropist, its largest patron of the arts, its leading voice on finance, its defining political figure. And by being that man in New York, Bloomberg turned his work into a template for leaders all over the country, and cities all over the world.

That won’t be true for de Blasio, giving him a much shallower reservoir of goodwill as he undertakes the massive reorientation of the city that he promised, facing a budget that’ll continue to be tight, crime statistics observers expect could be on the verge of ticking up, and a time bomb of multiple labor contracts coming due that could blow a hole through any budget aspirations.

“It’s a rebirth, it’s a renewal,” said Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), standing at de Blasio’s victory party. “New York is a wonderful town — I think Bill is going to bring with him energy and excitement, new ideas.”

Bloomberg is widely expected to meet with de Blasio on Wednesday, though no schedule has been announced.