Hempstead, N.Y. (CN) - Any concern that the room temperature would be set too low were, at least metaphorically, put to rest at New York’s Democratic gubernatorial debate Wednesday evening - the arena was absolutely frosty.
On Tuesday, Cynthia Nixon’s campaign, pre-empting what it claimed would be incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s insistence on an icy room, asked that the thermometer be set to 76 degrees.
Wednesday evening, just a few weeks before the state’s Sept. 13 primary elections, Gov. Cuomo and challenger Nixon traded blows for an hour in the televised debate, descending into what one audience member later called “catty” exchanges.
“The debate - it felt like a fight,” said Hofstra University undergraduate student Stevens Martinez, who attended with two classmates. The debate was held at Hofstra’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Long Island, about 30 miles east of New York City.
The candidates were seated on opposite sides of the stage when the debate began and did not make opening or closing statements. Between the barbs, they touched on about a dozen issues, including homelessness, mass transit, campaign finance reform, taxes, single-payer healthcare and marijuana legalization.
Nixon touted her position as a political newcomer, noting that being an “Albany insider” like Cuomo doesn’t mean everything.
“I think experience doesn’t mean that much if you’re not actually good at governing,” she said in her response to the opening question.
Cuomo, meanwhile, flexed his “experience” muscle, and took a few jabs at Nixon’s history as an actress and activist.
“The job of the governor of New York is not a job about politics; it’s not about advocacy,” Cuomo said in his rebuttal. “It’s about doing. It’s about management. This is real life ... you’re running a $170 billion budget. You’re in charge of fighting terrorism. You’re there in cases of fires and floods and emergencies and train wrecks. You have to deal with a legislature that’s very, very difficult, and today, you have to fight Donald Trump, who is the main risk to the state of New York.”
Cuomo is running for his third term as governor and has the backing of the state Democratic Party machine, having racked up establishment endorsements from the likes of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and the New York State Democratic Committee. Nixon, running on the progressive wing of the party, has consistently pushed Cuomo left.
Early in the debate, Cuomo was answering a question about a fare hike to the New York City subway and took another jab at Nixon.
“My opponent lives in the world of fiction,” Cuomo said. “I live in the world of facts.”
He began to answer the question, and Nixon tried to jump in to refute him.
“Can you stop interrupting?” Cuomo said to his opponent.
“Can you stop lying?” she shot back.
“Yeah,” Cuomo responded, “as soon as you do.”
Nixon has said she wants to implement a single-payer healthcare system in the state, known as “Medicare for All.” Moderator Maurice DuBois told her a Rand Corporation study estimated that cost at $139 billion -- almost the size of the state budget.
Nixon countered that the same group also said the system would result in “tremendous savings” for the state.