Yeah, that was a crazy few weeks ... I mean, obviously the attacks turned everything upside down, but specifically how it played out with the mayoral race. The Democratic runoff between Green and Freddy Ferrer was scheduled for Sept. 11, and was postponed a couple weeks due to the attacks. Before that happened, Rudy floated a plan to postpone the entire mayoral election so he could serve for a few more months, and incredibly, Green agreed to it! Everyone knew he and Rudy hated each other, so the fact that he went along with it just made him look weak. After a backlash, Rudy abandoned the idea.
Then like a week before the general election, Rudy cut a TV ad formally endorsing Bloomberg. He was at the absolute peak of his popularity at that point, so it made a huge difference. A couple days before the election, Green released a couple ads where he absolutely dumped the oppo kitchen sink on Bloomberg, which backfired spectacularly. The allegations were completely uncorroborated, and made Green look super desperate.
And despite all of that, Bloomberg still only won a 50/48 squeaker!