De Blasio and Lhota Agree to 3 TV Debates Bill Hyers Bill de Blasio, in a photo posted on Twitter by his campaign, with his son, Dante, and President Obama at a fund-raiser. Add a new name to the list of people who admire the giant Afro of Dante de Blasio, the teenage son of Bill de Blasio, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor: President Obama. The Republican mayoral nominee, Joseph Lhota, at a forum at New York University on Tuesday. During a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday night in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Obama first introduced Mr. de Blasio, whom he endorsed enthusiastically Monday in the November general election, as the "next mayor of New York City." But then he singled out Dante, seated at his father's table, who starred in a popular - some believe pivotal - television commercial during the summer. "His son, Dante, who has the same hairdo as I had in 1978," Mr. Obama said, according to a pool reporter at the event, which was held at the Waldorf-Astoria. Although I have to confess my Afro was never that good. It was a little imbalanced. Everyone laughed. Mr. Obama, speaking to a crowd that included families and many small children, then pivoted back to Mr. de Blasio and said: "We are confident he is going to continue to move New York in a direction where everybody has a chance to get ahead." It was a moment of levity made all the more surreal by its coming at the end of a historic and weighty day in world affairs. Earlier, Mr. Obama addressed the United Nations on the reach - and limits - of American might in the Middle East. Later, Iran's new president preached tolerance and understanding. Mr. Obama's remarks also represented a dulcet end to an intense and barbed day on the campaign trail in the New York City mayor's race. A day after fending off criticism for his youthful ties to left-wing groups, Mr. de Blasio slammed his Republican rival for borrowing a page from the other end of the political spectrum: right-wing Republicans. The Republican candidate, Joseph J. Lhota, showed no signs of backing down, accusing Mr. de Blasio, who as a young man had admired Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government, of dishonoring New Yorkers who had escaped "Marxist tyranny." The exchanges spiced up a day in which the two candidates agreed to participate in three televised debates, the most in a general election for the mayor's office since 1985, on three consecutive Tuesdays, with the first scheduled for Oct. 15. Mr. Lhota had wanted more - he sought at least one in each borough - but Mr. de Blasio said he would participate in three. Mr. de Blasio's sympathy for the Sandinistas was detailed in an article in The New York Times that chronicled the candidate's years as an activist. And on Tuesday, Mr. Lhota released a statement saying, "Mr. de Blasio's class warfare strategy in New York City is directly out of the Marxist playbook." And he amplified those comments after speaking at a forum of minority- and women-owned businesses, telling reporters that Mr. de Blasio's ideology was "dividing the City of New York. We need to be uniting the City of New York. Mr. de Blasio hit back, and hard, a contrast to his awkward response to the topic on Monday, when he sidestepped several questions and led a pack of reporters on a three-block chase in Midtown Manhattan. On Tuesday, speaking at the event in Lower Manhattan where he was endorsed by John C. Liu, the city comptroller, who finished fourth in the primary, Mr. de Blasio said: "Joe Lhota's attacks are becoming increasingly silly. What I'm seeing from the other side is just a classic Republican tactic, a classic right-wing tactic of division. It's just an attempt at name calling and obscuring the real issues that face this city. Later, when asked whether he had ever agreed with Marxist ideology, Mr. de Blasio, looking a bit flabbergasted, said: "It's 2013. I'd like to note, I'm not going to stoop to Joe Lhota's level here. He added: "I've read lots of wonderful books of all different viewpoints, and I've been exceedingly consistent throughout my career. I am a progressive who believes in an activist approach to government. You can call it whatever the heck you want. One thing was settled on Tuesday: There will be no need for a runoff in the Democratic primary for mayor. The Board of Elections announced that - even though it still needs a few more days to finish counting paper ballots in Manhattan - there was no way that Mr. de Blasio, who received just shy of 41 percent in ballots counted thus far, could now dip below the 40 percent threshold that automatically triggers a runoff.