I wish their fears were more justified, but let’s roll with it, just for the giggles.

They are startled and unsure how to react. “Terrifying,” is how one banker put it.

Many in New York’s business and financial elite, stung by the abrupt ascent of Bill de Blasio, an unapologetic tax-the-rich liberal, are fixated on a single question: What are we going to do?

The angst, emanating from charity galas and Park Avenue dinner tables, has created an unexpected political opening for Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican nominee, whose once-sleepy candidacy is now viewed by players in both parties as their last, best hope for salvaging the business-friendly government of the Bloomberg era.

Even before his victory speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Lhota was moving quickly to exploit his newfound role. He planned to speak on primary night with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose blessing could confer credibility with the Manhattan establishment.

His fund-raisers are wooing real estate and business moguls turned off by the leftist tenor of the Democratic primary campaign, and some Democratic officials have already quietly approached him to offer help.

“I’ve heard from people who would usually be inclined to support the Democratic candidate,” said an upbeat James S. Tisch, the chief executive of the Loews Corporation and a finance chairman of Mr. Lhota’s campaign, as he greeted well-wishers at a breakfast fund-raiser that attracted 200 guests — both Democrats and Republicans — on Monday.

With the news that over the last four years “income for the 1 percent grew by 31.4 percent, while everyone else only saw it grow by 0.4 percent,” I hope Mr. de Blasio is an unapologetic tax-the-fuck-out-of-the-rich liberal, but I don’t think things will work out that way.