N.Y. Mayoral Rivals Spar in Debate as Vote Nears

Democrat David N. Dinkins clashed in campaign debate with New York mayoral rival Rudolph W. Giuliani on Sunday while gubernatorial contenders sought support in Virginia and New Jersey in the final days of an off-year election season focusing on race and abortion.

Weekend polls pointed to a possible Democratic sweep on Tuesday in the three most closely watched races--L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia in his bid to become the nation’s first elected black governor, Dinkins in his drive to become his city’s first black mayor and Rep. James J. Florio to become governor of New Jersey.

The underdog Republicans in those three races have been thrown on the defensive by their pro-choice opponents on the issue of abortion. The subject has emerged as a potent issue in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling permitting restrictions.

The New York mayoral race featured harsh personal attacks lobbed by former U.S. Atty. Giuliani against Dinkins, the Manhattan borough president. The two locked horns Sunday in an angry second televised debate that featured Giuliani’s continued focus on financial problems surrounding Dinkins.

“The people of our town don’t want a prosecutor. They want a mayor,” Dinkins said.

“They want a mayor who doesn’t have to fear a prosecutor,” Giuliani shot back.

Giuliani told reporters after the debate that Dinkins “needs to be investigated.”

In Virginia, Wilder, buoyed by a Richmond Times-Dispatch poll reporting a 9-point edge, was campaigning Sunday in the state’s coal mining region.

His opponent, J. Marshall Coleman, was in the northwestern part of the state to conclude a weekend in which he charged his rival with privately pledging to coal miners that he would “sabotage” the state’s right-to-work law by permitting unions to collect dues from non-union workers covered by union contracts. Wilder says he supports the right-to-work law.

In New Jersey, Florio, with a poll showing him with a lead of 24 points, called for the election of Democratic candidates to the State Assembly, where Republicans have a two-seat majority.

Republican Rep. Jim Courter dismissed the newspaper poll as he made his way around the state.