Democratic allies of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s challenger say the mayor should denounce comments Rudy Giuliani made while they campaigned together.
Several elected officials backing William Thompson Jr. said Giuliani was stirring up old racial tensions when he suggested the city could go back to its crime-ridden days of the early 1990s if Bloomberg is not re-elected.
Giuliani campaigned Sunday with Bloomberg in a predominantly Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood.
Some supporters of Thompson, who is black, say Giuliani was stoking fears of a time when tensions between black and Jewish New Yorkers were especially high.
The city’s first black mayor, David Dinkins, was in office in the early 1990s.
Bloomberg would not address the comments directly on Monday, saying only that he had sought to unite the city during his two terms.