It was a big night for Mayor Bloomberg.
Four of the five voters on a Post panel who were undecided at the start of last night’s debate said afterward that they would cast their ballots for him next Tuesday. The fifth remained on the fence.
Bloomberg “was able to pull better from his tenure, as far as leadership style,” said Ann Clark, 24, of Manhattan, who works in public relations.
And a voter who had been leaning to Thompson after the last debate moved back last night to the neutral column, thanks to the Democratic challenger’s decision to give Bloomberg a “D-minus” grade for his time in office.
“That was when I went, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Harlem resident Tim Fielder, a teacher who works with at-risk teens for the nonprofit Animation Project.
“I felt that, in the end, that was not very magnanimous.”
Fielder watched the hourlong face-off along with the other undecided voters at The Post’s office last night.
Every other member of the panel, all are Democrats, agreed about the “D-minus” moment, saying Thompson went off the rails at that point.
Fielder said a major anti-Bloomberg factor for him had been the mayor’s drive to repeal term limits.
But he faulted Thompson for his slams on the mayor’s education record, saying, “I don’t want to hear Thompson whining [about schools] . . . it is better now than it was.”
Anne Chesney, 23, who lives in the Village, said Thompson constantly threw darts rather than building a case for himself.
“After watching this debate tonight, I still have no idea what Thompson’s done,” she said.
Jessica Ingram, a 39-year-old Harlem resident who works in marketing, said Bloomberg “was good. He was poised, as usual.”
Robert Harris, 29, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said Bloomberg came off as “more knowledgeable about running a city.”