(Bryan Smith/New York Daily News)

NEW YORK, NY October 12, 2009 —Mayor Bloomberg and his Democratic challenger, Bill Thompson, met in their first debate in the mayoral race tonight. The debate was held at Museo del Bario. WNYC's Bob Hennelly had this preview:

The stakes are high for Democratic challenger Bill Thompson who is being outspent in the campaign ten-to-one by Mayor Bloomberg. Much of Bloomberg's broadcast ad campaign has been focused on finding fault with Thompson's tenure as the President of the City Board of Education. This preceded Mayoral control, which Bloomberg says under his tenure helped improve the public schools. Bloomberg has also attacked Thompson's performance overseeing the municipal pension funds as Comptroller. Tonight, Thompson has to counter all that, while at the same time successfully making his central argument that the Mayor, one of the world's wealthiest men, is out of touch with middle class New Yorkers. For WNYC I am Bob Hennelly.

Brian Lehrer and Andrea Bernstein held a post-debate chat with listeners. please click here to read their responses to listener's questions and comments.

To read debate analysis by WNYC reporters, please click here.