Florida 2000 . . . New York City 2005?

Mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer may be facing a runoff against Anthony Weiner (whose charming “Weiner Mayor” signs could stay in rotation another couple of weeks), pending the outcome of an extremely tight vote count:

Fernando Ferrer captured the most votes in the Democratic mayoral primary last night, but a strong possibility emerged that he might have to vie in a runoff for his party’s nomination against Representative Anthony D. Weiner.

According to preliminary, unofficial results last night, Mr. Ferrer held a strong lead over Mr. Weiner, who rode an anti-establishment political message out of last place in a four-way race in just the last few weeks. But unofficial results showed that Mr. Ferrer captured 39.949 percent of the vote, a hairbreadth short of the 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff on Sept 27.

Foreshadowing a fierce battle over the election results in coming days, Mr. Ferrer stopped just short of declaring victory in the Democratic primary last night, saying, “We’re almost there.” Mr. Weiner had 29 percent of the vote, and insisted that he was in the runoff.

Several thousand absentee ballots still need to be counted.

Meanwhile, Gifford Miller barely did better than perennial gadfly Christopher X. Brodeur, whose message appealed to 17,000 voters (4 percent) versus Miller’s 46,000 supporters (10 percent):

Maybe it was his pledge to eliminate all subway fares. Or perhaps it was his desultory campaign promises, as outlined in a column in The New York Press several months ago, to cap apartment rent increases at 10 percent, legalize marijuana, eliminate the posts of borough president, and install free public toilets throughout the city. Whatever the reason, more than 17,000 of the roughly 455,000 Democrats who cast primary ballots yesterday chose Mr. Brodeur for mayor over a raft of higher-profile candidates with full campaign staffs.

Mr. Brodeur, a blunt-spoken man in his late 30’s who wears his chin stubble long and his brown shaggy ponytail even longer, cast himself as a reform candidate and said he has disliked every Democrat and Republican he has ever voted for.

“I’m sick of this government’s corruption, top to bottom,” he said in a two-minute campaign spot that appeared on public-access television. And if you did not want to vote for him, he added, “You can vote for one of the typical politicians, and I’m sure that’s going to work out real well.”