In Dem. Debate, Avella Attacks Thompson Who Attacks Bloomberg

In the first Democratic mayoral debate between City Comptroller William Thompson and City Council Tony Avella, the pair mostly attacked each other. But last night, Avella went after Thompson, questioning city's pension fund performance and comptroller's acceptance of donations from money managers and his past as head of the school board.

Avella called the pension fund situation "a huge scandal." As for Thompson's education record, NY1 reports that when the Comptroller "said he was proud of his work on the board and said it paved the way for mayoral control of the city's schools. 'Yeah, it led to mayoral control because you did such a terrible job,' Avella argued." You can see some clips here.

The NY Times editorial board endorsed Thompson for the Democratic primary today, because voters "need to select the best qualified candidate and the one who will give Mayor Michael Bloomberg a real contest in his well-financed quest for a third term." However, in its article about the debate, the Times found, when responding to the first question (what would you do as your first act as mayor), that Thompson "seemed flummoxed, pausing for a painful six seconds, fumbling through a couple of false starts, then settling on a boilerplate answer: fire all of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s commissioners...When asked what steps he had taken to improve the environment, Mr. Thompson paused, then said that he was now chauffeured around the city in a hybrid sport utility vehicle."