Monday, September 14th 2009, 4:00 AM
Mayor Bloomberg tried to distance himself Sunday from a hit his campaign launched at Controller William Thompson, his likely mayoral opponent.
Bloomberg campaign staffers handed out leaflets ripping into Thompson's record - at a news conference the controller held to spotlight school overcrowding.
Afterward, Bloomberg dodged questions about the tactic.
"You'll have to ask the campaign about that," he said, referring to his own campaign.
When pressed to comment about the leaflet - which challenges Thompson's record as president of the Board of Ed from 1996 to 2001 - the mayor repeatedly refused.
Later yesterday, Bloomberg questioned whether Thompson's school overcrowding report was politically motivated.
"I didn't start this," the mayor said in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. "[We] were just trying to set the record straight."
Thompson's scathing report accuses the city of failing to fix overcrowding in the schools. The report details at least 14 school districts that will still be overcrowded even after all the new seats planned by 2014 are created.
"The slow pace of completing new school buildings is delaying relief from overcrowding in communities that have the most overcrowded schools," Thompson said.
Other elected officials joined Thompson to complain about the pace of construction. "We can't lurch from crisis to crisis each fall," said City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan).
"I can't tell you right now that we're going to fix overcrowding permanently," DOE spokeswoman Nicole Colina Duignan said.
"I can tell you that if current trends continue, the problem is going to be progressively alleviated each year."
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