After Mayoral Forum, Bloomberg Says Candidates \'Sound Ridiculous\'

It could be a long year for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

A day after his policies (and his knowledge of mold) came under attack from several mayoral candidates at a forum in East New York, Mr. Bloomberg hit back on Friday, saying the critics “had no idea what they’re talking about.”

“They just sound ridiculous,” Mr. Bloomberg said on his Friday morning radio show, referring to several Democratic candidates, including John C. Liu, the city comptroller, and Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, who were deeply critical of Mr. Bloomberg’s responsiveness to Hurricane Sandy, among other issues.

Th mayor suggested that the candidates had offered “no solutions” and that all of the criticism would be a deterrent toward recruiting talented workers to take prominent roles in public service. “Why would anybody want to come and take those jobs again” Mr. Bloomberg asked.

But the mayor offered amnesty to one would-be successor: Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and a frequent political ally of the Bloomberg administration.

“The one aspirant who really hasn’t engaged in most of this foolishness is Quinn,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “She’s much more rational and understands there’s no simple solution to complex problems.”

The mayor’s remarks came after a feisty gathering on Thursday evening of six candidates in the 2013 mayoral race, held at a Baptist church in East New York, Broo! klyn. The mere mention of Mr. Bloomberg’s name was enough to earn loud jeers from the overwhelmingly Democratic audience, and the candidates did not hesitate to deliver.

William C. Thompson, a former city comptroller, said the Bloomberg administration “failed the people of this city” in its response to Hurricane Sandy, noting the mayor wanted to run the New York City Marathon while “bodies were still being found.” (Mr. Bloomberg later decided to cancel the marathon.)

Mr. de Blasio compared Mr. Bloomberg to President George W. Bush and suggested the mayor did not care about public housing. “There’s an old, colorful Sicilian saying that says: the fish stinks from the head,” Mr. de Blasio said, to much laughter and applause. Mr. Liu wondered if the mayor was familiar with mold, which has affected homes damaged by the hurricane.

Even Joseph J. Lhota, the former transit chief and a Republican candidate who is well-liked by the city’s business sector, weighed in against Mr. Blomberg, criticizing the city for not tailoring its hurricane relief efforts by neighborhood.

On Friday morning, Mr. Bloomberg at first sounded reluctant to discuss the attacks, and then said he would not address them point-by-point. With political candidates, he said, “I think there’s always rhetoric that has nothing to do with what they would do in office.”

Still, the mayor appeared to be wavering on a pledge he made in October, when he told reporters he would no longer publicly discuss the race for his successor.

“I’m not going to spend the next year answering ‘what do you think’ of every potential candidate’s ideas, whether they’re good, bad, whether I agree with them or not,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the time, adding, “I’m going to spend my time being mayor.”