New York City mayoral primary debate between de Blasio and Albanese

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The primaries are only three weeks away, September 12th.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is hoping he's earned another four years in office.

But Wednesday night, there was a chance to get to know his main Democratic opponent.

He's not as slick or polished as de Blasio, but no surprise, he was on the attack a lot, but he was also really funny.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has an easy re-election road ahead of him. His primary opponent isn't well known at all.

But Wednesday night, Former City Councilman Sal Albanese got off some great one-liners, like when asked does he have any clout or prominence?

"Whenever you become mayor you're automatically prominent, even Bill's prominent now," Albanese said.

They clashed a lot, for example, on this summer's subway mess.

"The first thing we have to do to fix the subways is get the people responsible for the subways to actually take responsibility, that's the State of New York and the Governor of New York," Mayor de Blasio said.

But his opponent called de Blasio derelict in his subway duties.

"For three and a-half years, he took the position transit is not his job," Albanese said. "I had to personally shame him into taking the subway a couple weeks ago for the first time after derailments he didn't show up to."

On record-low crime, the mayor's pushed to hire 2,000 more cops and a new style of neighborhood policing. It's worked. But Albanese claimed who is mayor doesn't really matter.

"If Mickey Mouse were mayor we'd still have crime going down," Albanese said.

"Having been mayor of New York City for the last four years it matters very, very deeply what a mayor does in bringing down crime," Mayor de Blasio said.

They spent the most time on all of the mayor's pay to play scandals.

"You're the least transparent mayor in the city's history," Albanese said.

"Couldn't be more wrong," de Blasio said.

The mayor countered that he was investigated and cleared.

"What he just said is patently false. I was very, very clear throughout. Sure there were investigations, but in this country, in a democracy if they find you to be innocent that's supposed to mean something," de Blasio said.

Near the end of the debate there was another pretty good line when the mayor complimented Albanese on championing gay rights way back in the 1980s.

"I thank you for the compliment, but I'm very suspicious," Albanese said.