Lucille Williams was looking for every reason not to vote yesterday.

“When I decided that there would be no rain, I convinced myself that I had to come out and vote,” Ms. Williams, who cast her ballot at the Oberia Dempsey Center in Harlem, said. “To tell you the truth, I’m not excited about any of the Democratic candidates. No one has been spectacular in this year’s race.”

On this day, Ms. Williams – a devoted Democrat who has never crossed party lines, ended up voting for the president of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields. But come November, she might just switch sides for the first time to cast a vote for Mayor Bloomberg.

Throughout the election, I’ve been surprised by the number of African-Americans like Ms. Williams who seem willing to give Mr. Bloomberg another chance. They credit his administration with improving the public schools, cracking down on crime, and revitalizing blighted neighborhoods long seen as eyesores.

The fact that Mr. Bloomberg has received the support from black leaders like the Reverends Floyd Flake and A. R. Bernard, who pastor to thousands of black parishioners each Sunday, indicates that the mayor has gained traction in the black community in ways that his predecessor, Mayor Giuliani, simply could not.

In comparison to Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Bloomberg is seen as more courteous. He has refrained from engaging in divisive racial politicking and has made nice with the city’s black political leadership. He has on more than one occasion reached out, helping for example, to ease racial tensions by engaging the black community early on.

When a black man was attacked in Howard Beach earlier this summer, Mr. Bloomberg immediately was on the telephone with the Reverend Al Sharpton to formulate a strategy for moving forward.

“From where I sit, he has done much good,” Ms. Williams, who praises Mr. Bloomberg, grudgingly said. “To be honest with you, I just wish he was a Democrat. It pains me to vote for a Republican, but I feel like he’s a straight shooter.”

In this year’s campaign, the Democrats didn’t do enough to excite their base and to show New Yorkers that they would do a much better job. Thus, come November, Mr. Bloomberg will easily be re-elected, and he will do so with a significant amount of black support.

This is unusual, particularly when one considers that blacks do not generally vote for Republicans. In last year’s presidential vote, President Bush garnered only about 8% of the black vote.

But Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign has done something unparalleled – he is swaying African Americans his way. It’s a lesson that the Republican National Committee could learn if they are as serious as they say they are about broadening the party beyond Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas.

Though New York City public schools continue to face serious challenges, many African-Americans have been encouraged by Mr. Bloomberg’s announcement earlier this year that the test scores among black and Hispanic students have improved. They have also credited the mayor – and the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly – with helping to strengthen police and community relations, a source of much tension during Mr. Giuliani’s tenure.

Still, as Mr. Bloomberg readies himself for a second term, he will not be able to take the African-American community for granted. The measured support that he currently has in quarters of the black community will quickly dissipate if momentum is lost on the public schools and housing becomes harder to find or afford.

The Democrats’ stinging loss in November should force the party to regroup and rethink about a viable candidate who can inspire the party’s base and turn out the electorate in 2009. The city comptroller, William Thompson, may prove a more credible candidate than any in the field this year because he is a seasoned politician who has deep ties in the black community and understands how to govern. He is also an attractive candidate in a city that shamefully has elected only one black mayor in its entire history.

Ms. Williams has hoped that Ms. Fields would be the second. But her candidacy, which was important in part because she was the only black and woman in the race, never picked up much momentum. I wonder how race and gender ultimately factored into her poor performance.

But the larger issue is that so many New Yorkers felt that this year’s race for mayor was uneventful, which is why they ultimately stayed home.

“I didn’t know that there was even an election,” one man who passed a voting booth in Harlem yesterday said. “Can you tell me again who’s running beside Bloomberg?”

Mr. Watson is the executive editor of the New York Amsterdam News. He can be reached at jamalwats@aol.com.