Bombs away!
Mayor Bloomberg and Comptroller Bill Thompson shifted into attack mode last night, pummeling each other nonstop over who deserves to run City Hall for the next four years during the first mayoral debate.
For a full hour, the combative rivals went to war over term limits, education, pension funds, personal integrity — and even whether Ray Kelly should remain as police commissioner.
Thompson struck first, blasting Bloomberg for undoing term limits without approval from the voters — after the mayor had already been heckled over the issue by the Green Party candidate, who was in the audience, during his opening statement.
“Can the richest man in New York City play by his own set of rules, while we play by a separate set of rules?” Thompson seethed during the face-off at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem and televised by New York 1.
Bloomberg defended his decision to run for a third term, saying he wanted to guide the city through the recession as he did in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
“Who can lead the city? Who is going to improve education? Who is going to lower crime? Who’s going to be there as a steward through tough financial times? . . . That’s the issue facing the voters,” he said.
When pressed on term limits, Bloomberg added, “No one is indispensable. But voters have a choice. And if that’s their issue on Nov. 3, they can express themselves.”
But Thompson continued to go for the jugular.
“We’re talking about right and wrong . . . He should not have been allowed to run a third time . . . It is wrong. Mike Bloomberg lied to the people of New York City,” he said.
Bloomberg then turned the tables as he defended spending millions to air ads slamming Thompson’s record as president of the old Board of Education. Bloomberg said test scores are up and crime is down since he took control of the schools, rescuing them from the dark days of the 1990s when Thompson was in charge.
“The schools were much worse then. It was a failing school system,” Bloomberg said of Thompson’s tenure as board president from 1996-2001.
Thompson, a Democrat, defended his education record, saying, “I didn’t run the school system,” and fuming that Bloomberg was distorting his record.
He said if he’d had the additional funds Bloomberg had, “I would have done a better job.”
Bloomberg shot back, “You don’t get a medal for rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.”
The debate got personal when the two attacked one another’s integrity. Bloomberg, an independent running on the GOP line, slammed Thompson for pay-to-play politics.
He said the comptroller accepted $650,000 in campaign contributions from people doing business with the pension system he oversees.
“That’s not the way we should run government,” the mayor said.
Thompson insisted there was no quid pro quo.
“No one has ever questioned my integrity. Mike, you know better than that. You should be ashamed,” he thundered.
For his part, Thompson accused Bloomberg of using his massive wealth to buy votes, charging that the mayor bought party lines and donated funds to curry favor with influential community groups.
“We are not for sale!” Thompson said at one point.
Bloomberg insisted he’s independent of special-interest politics.
“I’m not out there buying votes. I’m out there trying to run the city,” he said.
Earlier, Bloomberg suffered a blow when the 9,500-member Correction Officers Benevolent Association — one of the only unions to back him in 2001 and 2005 — endorsed Thompson.
carl.campanile@ny
post.com