Incumbent mayor Fernando Wood re-elected to a second term in office in a four-way race. He defeated American Party nominee Isaac O. Barker, Republican Anthony J. Bleecker, and Whig nominee John J. Herrick. Although Wood was easily re-elected by an increased plurality over his 1854 performance, he ran behind presidential candidate James Buchanan and failed to win support for his reform proposals on the Common Council. The election realigned the city's political factions, which had been divided over the issue of slavery, into personal supporters and opponents of Wood.
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