Now the race for mayor in new york city. This formed the latest in a series of debates between the candidates with less than three weeks before voters in new york city go to the polls. The democratic primary is scheduled for tuesday, september 10th. If no candidate obtains 40 of the vote a runoff will take place between the top two finishers. In a leading democrat and republican will face each other in the november 5th general election. The race continues to make national headlines, and it will put the candidates and their campaign in the perspective. Joining us from new york, kate taylor for the New York Times. Thank you for being with us. A pleasure. Three weeks to go, set up this race. What youre looking at . As you said, if none of the candidates get 40 in the primary there will be a runoff but when the top two candidates. What you have right now is three candidates all in a very tight race for who will be the two people who get into the runoff. The most recent polls, roughly tied. Phil thompson and third place. It will see a lot of very intense back and forth among these candid its in the four others tonight. Some of the issues that you will see come up are term limits. A very controversial decision to lift the citys termlimits law to allow bloomberg to run for a third term as mayor. You will also see discussion of new York City Police stop and frisk practice which was the subject of a major federal judge decision the couple of weeks ago in which the judge determined that the practice was racially discriminatory, annihilating the Constitutional Rights of new york city minorities. The candidates have all said they would reform the practice. You will see a lot of debate over who would be the most effective in doing so. Another issue that will probably come up this peoples families. Using his family in the campaign trail. But his teenage sun and a couple of baths. His son, he talked about how his sun is likely to be stopped and first sunday. Both the first female mayor and the first openly gay mayor car recently brought her were found on the campaign trail. Today there was some testy backandforth over comments that were made to the New York Times suggesting that Kristine Quinn was not sensitive to issues about people raising children. The campaign accused her of suggesting that because it does not have her own children shed doesnt understand child rearing. We will address some of the very latest ads in this new york city mayoral race and take a look at some other elections taking place. Let me ask you about the new York City Campaign finance board which was instrumental in these televised debates. There have been a series of other forms taking place. What is the role of this commission . Why was it set up . Why have the candid its a here to the schedule . The Campaign Finance board administers the citys Campaign Finance system. Under the new York City Campaign finance laws candidates can participate in a system which offers quite generous matching donations. They have to agree to a very strict spending limits. All candidates have to agree to a very strict contribution limits. And then for every small donation they get from a new yorker they get a 61 matching public funds. The City Campaign finance board is important. It administers and decides who deserves. It also organizes the debates. So this is the first of two official Campaign Finance board debates and the democratic primary. In the polls have shown that the support for the candidates is very soft right now. None of the leading candidates have a majority of the supporters saying that they will definitely vote for that candid it. These debates are being watched by people and will be important in determining how the numbers phase out. We welcome your calls. Thats our line for republicans we do have a line set aside for those of you who live in new york city. 2025 kayfive 3882. The New York Times website. A look at last weeks debate which took place on channel seven. Impressive ratings. Of about 450,000 people who tune in. Your comments or reaction. Absolutely. Its very impressive that that many people tune in. As i say, we will see a lot of shifts in the numbers in the coming weeks. In the debates will the debates will be critical. The last debate was very intense. In particular you saw Bill Thompson attacking of the term limit issue which you will see it again tonight. So these will be very important in in forming a yorkers who until recently have not been paying a lot of attention. This exchange, two of the candid its in the new york city Mayoral Debate and a recent headlines came up last week. Anthony is right. We have all heard a lot about his personal issues. From the the bigger issue is his record. Some of what i have accomplished is listed. If elected anthonys record, it was passing one piece of legislation at the request of a Campaign Contributor who was a tobacco distributor. That was not a record of results. Could i . Very briefly. Here is the profound difference. I have apologized for my personal behavior. The speaker refuses to apologize for overturning the will of the people and for the professional record. I have phoned up to my personal feeling. Never record im proud of them will be honest with the citizens of the city. Let me just say, i think its clear to all new yorkers that neither myself or anyone else on the stage for any new yorker should be lectured about what we need to apologize for tonight or ever. Lets move on. We have been following this story. The News Conference that took place last month as he admitted he had been using is twitter activity. How is this playing out . Well, it is really putting an end to speculation that he is calling to de travail or even make it into the runoff. He was leading in the polls briefly before the revelations that he continued this activity after his resignation and is now down to about 10 . Fatigue has set in. There were clouds on crowds of reporters following him around. Now only a small handful. He continues. He is continuing to campaign. Hes happy not to have all the reporters following him. He was defiant and people call for him to drop out of the race. It is clear that he will continue and go right up until the primary election. Im sure he will be a lively debate year. We may hear more discussion. He is no longer considered a serious contender for the nomination. Your colleague is the debate moderator. The bureau chief. How is he preparing for this debate, a 7person debate that will run 90 minutes . The most important thing is he that his daughters. But he has begun to gather. One thing they try to do is come up with questions that have not already been asked in the previous debate and the dozens of forms that happened over the course of the last few months. There were sometimes multiple forms and a day. So theyve been asked a lot of questions. Im sure there will ask about the hot button issues like stop and frisk, term limits, but there will also try to come up with some new ones the surprise us and maybe the candidates. Who want to thank our partners for allowing us to show a National Audience tonights 90 minute debate that will be commercial free and get underway at 7 00 eastern. Thomas is joining us from brooklyn. Go ahead please. Im calling in because i dont think kristine plan should be mayor. Why is that . What kind of the campaign has shoe run . She has run as the person most closely allied with bloomberg. The City Council Speaker and has been an ally of the last several years. What she offers to new yorkers is the idea that would be the greatest continuity. And that would probably be an asset or possibly be an asset in a general election, but it has proven to be quite complicated and challenging in the primary person of the other candidates have tapped into some real areas of dissatisfaction about policing, stop and frisk, rising inequality. In a recent poll 85 percent of new yorkers said that it the new york city was too expensive. Thats a feeling that has been really tapped into by the campaign mono, a tale of two cities where some people in doing extremely well and some people is struggling to get by. A greater effort in recent months separate record. She is criticized him over his policies, passed some bills that he is vetoed and is not approve of, but particularly because of the term limit issue and the fact is she gave him the chance to run for a third term, still considered the closest to him. One of the things we will do is talk about each of the candidates individually, what they bring to this campaign. The former city comptroller. Heres some of the latest ads now on the air in new york. This is the view i grew up with. Something special. City of opportunity that from my grandparents here. I want to bring that promise back to every neighborhood in new york. Safe streets with community policing, not racial profiling. Could jobs, decent rant and respect for everybody. Im Bill Thompson, and knowledge remember where i come from a standing up for. My web my mother was a new york city schoolteacher. Pot neighborhood schools shut down. Its time to stop blaming and start changing. Lets fix neighborhood schools. Lets teach. Lets give every child a great education so that they can build a better life. One of the top tier candidates, at least in the amount of money he has raised and where he is in the polls at the moment. One of the interesting things is that he was the democratic nominee for mayor in 2009. He ran against bloomberg. He actually came very close to beating blumberg, even though blumberg had vastly more money to spend. And what Bill Thompson seems to have low name recognition with voters compared to what you would expect. So as eocene, at this point is having to reintroduce himself to voters. Is in third place now. One crucial question that people are asking is whether he is calling to eventually get greater support in the black community that he has now. The only black and it in the race, right now is tied in terms of black support. Some people think that he really has room to grow. Black voters tend to make up their mind at the last minute. Its also an important question, whether the rev. Al sharpton will make an endorsement. If he endorsed Bill Thompson that will be a big help. He also has the endorsement of the Teachers Union which is quite powerful. So he has a lot of things going for in the primary. Let me follow up. Can you give us a broad overview of the makeup of the democratic primary electorate and what you think the turnout will be . Absolutely. One of the really interesting things about this year is that a lot of people are saying it is going to be a majority minority or minority majority, meaning that the majority of voters will be minority. That is one reason that some people have thought that Bill Thompson has a very good chance of winning. Got some majority of the black vote and some substantial portion of the latino vote he is in a strong position. A lot of the candidates, that is one reason that it is been such a big issue. A lot of the candidates are really looking to get as much support as they can. Another interesting thing about this is that it will likely to be 60 or almost 60 percent women which is been a key part of the strategy, opening up a gender gap. The first female mayor, hoping that women would vote for with enthusiasm about the prospect. So far the gender gap has not appeared, but we will watch and see. As you indicated, among the top tier in the candidates, phone lines are open. The new york city public advocate. As you indicated, his ads include his children, including his teenage sun. Lets watch. Hundreds of thousands of new yorkers who never experienced stop and frisk. The fact that some day you will be stopped. The parents all over this city having that conversation with their kids. The only candidate to end the stop and frisk error that targets minorities. The only one that will pass tax the rich. The only one. I wish everyone could see through the eyes of every other parent. These are on our children. Tell you a little bit. The only democrat to break from the bloomberg years and will raise taxes on the rich the boldest plan and is the only one who will and a stop and frisk era that unfairly targets people of,. A mayor for every new yorker, no matter where they live on what they look like. I say that even a few or my dad. As you look at that ad, is that the sharpest attack . Absolutely. You could say that his campaign is an attack. The second and the you played, the first one in this election season to break out and get a lot of attention. It was very good, letting people know what his family looked like, the fact that he can relate to the issue on a personal level. The other ad in which she claims to be the only candidate who would break from the bloomberg years has been quite controversial because, as i said kamal of the candid its say they would perform stop and frisk and oversee. Some of the other candidates have objected to this and as inaccurate and ask for him to take it down which so far he is not given any indication that he was going to. Were likely to see some discussion tonight. Making some accurate statements about where he stands compared to the other candidates. One of the headlines, the new york city mayoral race is up for grabs. Joining us from the newsroom, following this. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Talking about the race. Lets begin with that. We will talk about other races that youre following from your Vantage Point. The new york city race that is getting a lot of National Attention. Well, its getting a lot of National Attention for a lot of the wrong reasons. Certainly we and our colleagues in the National Media cannot get enough. As you and your guest are just talking about, this is a fairly serious election. The end of what has been a quartercentury what even some sympathetic folks would call autocratic larger than life republican mayors. So i think what youre hearing from these folks, especially with your hearing across the city is a change message. York is not alone. Give us a quick snapshot. Which other ones are you focusing on . Well, i would point to three cities that have big fields of candidates at this point. Boston, i just mentioned that new york is experiencing something of a change. Boston, even more so. The same mayor since the early 90s. Sort of the last big city bonds. To win back to laguardia. At different kind of boston the democratic primary will. But youre seeing a kind of racial and ethnic diversity, a diversity of identities that i dont think people necessarily think of when they think of boston politics traditionally. What other races are you keeping an eye on . Detroit where you have this you have had this big field of candidates. Just two contenders for a job that is you think it is very important right now. Ultimately the election itself may be less important than what happens after. Germany how much power the mayor will have when there is an emergency manager with Sweeping Authority for turning around. And houston, where a democratic mayor is running for a third term. A nonpartisan alexian but essentially a republican opponent. When she was elected it became the largest american city. So shes likely to win another term. National politics. Its worth keeping an eye on. The cover politics and policy in this era of budget deficits and tightening budgets here in washington. What can mayors expect from washington if anything when it comes to infrastructure, the nuts and bolts the mayors need to provide to their respective cities . You talk to mayors out in the country and at party conventions. The u. S. Conference of mayors meeting in d. C. Really set up with just how little support they get from washington. Basic, basic stuff, transportation funding. There is really just no certainty that any of that comes out of d. C. In a lot of ways the stimulus that a lot of folks credits with helping give the economy a jolt of momentum back in 2009 just deferred the fiscal problem for mayors a couple years because they were able to get bridge funding from the federal government. And it is now at the really hard choices are coming home. Whether its the green taxis won the super sized drinks in new york city that the mayor wanted to ban, what is the legacy that he has had in new york city and the influence that he may have had on other mayors around the country . Obviously one of the major influences he has had has been his policies. The ban on big so this did not go into effect and was not very popular. His policies on biking, and a bike lanes, the black share programs, the policy of talents and fastfood restaurants. The trans fat, the smoking ban. These things are all very popular among new yorkers, even though there were controversial to begin with and have been influential around the country and even around the world. Many countries in many cities around the world have passed smoking bans. Some places you really would not have expected. And so he can definitely claim to have a huge influence. The fare of seven candidates as we talked about an earlier. The new york City Council Speaker. Running for the democratic nomination and focused on what happened with super storms and the. Heres a portion. It was like we were watching television. There were some people that came home to no house whatsoever. There were for its who came back is on the ground. Those people who had four to 5 feet of water in their house actually considered themselves lucky. Kristine sat in this very room. Set up a support system for us to be able to respond to the various means that we had because we basically had nothing. We were able to reach up and any given time. Somebody from our staff almost 2047. It all to reach out and ask the question and get the information get some response. On the street meeting with people. What can i do the healthy. Showed compassion. Show their devotion. I saw firsthand her concern. When she met in individual on the streets, there was a true there was that anything made up. You know, thats a quality that a lot of people dont have. As you look at that video, what impact did that st