Stringer Goes After Spitzer During a Blistering Debate Scott M. Stringer and Eliot Spitzer, candidates in the Democratic primary for city comptroller, prepared for their debate Monday. Normally mild-mannered, Mr. Stringer went on the attack. The second face-off between the Democratic candidates for New York City comptroller was even nastier than the first. In a blistering hourlong debate, Scott M. Stringer, the typically mild-mannered Manhattan borough president, leveled a series of attacks that seemed to catch Eliot Spitzer, the former governor, onetime prosecutor and self-described "steamroller," off balance. Early in the debate, after Mr. Spitzer said that the middle class trusted him because, as attorney general, he had stood up to Wall Street and investigated the lending practices that led to the financial crisis, Mr. Stringer responded with a stinging rebuke. "They don't trust you, because you let them down," he said. Even if what you're saying is true - that somehow you could foresee the financial calamity, which is, I would say, a stretch at best - when you became governor, you didn't protect the people from the calamity. You resigned in disgrace. He continued: "So you talk a good game fighting for the middle class, but when it was on your watch, when you had an opportunity to make a difference for all the people who were in those mortgages, for the people who were trying to struggle to put food on the table in one of the greatest fiscal calamities of our generation, you dropped the ball, and you had to leave." Later, after Mr. Spitzer attacked Mr. Stringer for supporting the lifting of term limits, which allowed Mr. Bloomberg to run for a third term, Mr. Stringer said that he had campaigned with Mr. Bloomberg's Democratic opponent, William C. Thompson Jr., and noted that Mr. Spitzer had not played a role in the 2009 mayoral election. "Now part of the reason why you were sidelined is because you left during a federal investigation; I understand that," he went on. But what you did is you didn't go to help the Democrats take back City Hall. You went to a TV studio, where you were walled off from what was really going on in the streets of the city. He also accused Mr. Spitzer of being "nowhere to be found" after Hurricane Sandy and of criticizing elected officials from the remove of his CNN television studio. Mr. Stringer said that Mr. Spitzer was trying to buy the office of comptroller, noting that he was spending his own money instead of participating in the public financing program. "You're acting like a Republican, not a Democrat," he said. Mr. Spitzer in turn noted that business groups and labor unions had pledged to spend at least $1.5 million against him, because, he said, they "don't want an independent voice." "You say repeatedly I'm trying to buy this election, Scott," Mr. Spitzer said. I'm just trying to keep up with you, keep up with the money you're going to spend, and all the millions of dollars that your allies on Wall Street and the political plutocracy have said they're going to spend. The candidates frequently interrupted each other, which seemed to irritate Mr. Spitzer in particular. At one point, when Mr. Stringer had interjected something, Mr. Spitzer chastised him. "Scott, stop interrupting," he said, adding, "You'll have your chance." The debate, which took place at the CUNY TV studio, was moderated by Brian Lehrer of WNYC and Errol Louis of NY1. The only brief period of levity came when the moderators conducted a "lightning round," in which they asked such questions as whether either of the candidates had ever bounced a check (Stringer: yes; Spitzer: no), voted for a Republican (Stringer: no; Spitzer: yes), ridden a Citi Bike (both no) or eaten a cronut, the buzzed-about marriage of a croissant and a doughnut (both no).