New York State Republicans used images of boarded-up businesses and of Mayor Bill de Blasio to persuade voters to vote for their candidates.

By Jesse McKinley, Dana Rubinstein and Emma G. Fitzsimmons @ NYTimes.com, Nov. 5

[....] “They ran de Blasio’s picture all over the state,” the governor said in an interview on Thursday, noting that the city was depicted as a place of “looting, and crime and homelessness.”

“That was their message, and it resonated more than it should have,” he said on WAMC radio, adding, “It shouldn’t have been this close.” [....]

The mayor has certainly become a reliably powerful tool for Republican candidates looking for moderate suburban and rural votes. This election cycle they invoked Mr. de Blasio to suggest that Democrats were weak on crime and fond of high taxes. As such they echoed national attacks from Republicans on figures like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow Democrat and progressive from the city.

“They used Bill de Blasio and A.O.C. as their villains,” said Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee and a close ally of Mr. Cuomo’s. He added that voters saw images like “major stores on Fifth Avenue being boarded up” the day before Election Day. “It created unease and fed the Republican law-and-order narrative.”

[....] Mr. de Blasio, when told of the governor’s comments, brushed them off and played down the Republicans’ successes [....]