Republican NYC mayoral hopefuls spar in debate

[hrmjustin]

AP JONATHAN LEMIRE

NEW YORK -- The Republican candidates for mayor clashed frequently Wednesday in a spirited debate punctuated by testy exchanges over the best methods for maintaining the city's record-low crime rates.

Joe Lhota, the race's front-runner, deemed the funding for rival John Catsimaditis' plan to station police officers in high-crime public-housing buildings as unrealistic.

"I was budget director of the City of New York," said Lhota, a deputy mayor in former mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration. "Don't make up numbers."

When Catsimatidis, who's bidding to become the city's second consecutive billionaire mayor, sharply denied that claim, Lhota exclaimed, "Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not," Catsimatidis yelled.

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