UFT endorses Bill de Blasio for mayor

NEW YORK -- New York City's teachers union is endorsing Bill de Blasio for mayor after first supporting one of his opponents in the Democratic primary.

The influential United Federation of Teachers first backed ex-comptroller Bill Thompson, who finished second. Thompson bowed out Monday, two days after he met secretly with de Blasio and UFT head Michael Mulgrew.

De Blasio is downplaying the union's initial snub, saying they would stand "shoulder to shoulder" to improve schools.

Mulgrew says he spoke to Republican nominee Joe Lhota but the 200,000-member union never considered endorsing him.

The general election is Nov. 5.

De Blasio, who has a 15-year-old son in high school, would be the first parent of a public school child to serve as mayor.

Also, Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are endorsing Bill de Blasio for New York City mayor.

The Democratic heavyweights said in a statement Wednesday that they were "proud to see him run a thoughtful, creative campaign."

Meantime, all of the machine votes have been counted from the Democratic primary race.

De Blasio has 40.88%.

He needed 40 percent to avoid a runoff with Bill Thompson who got 26.25%.

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