Flummoxed by Columbus

THE DEMOCRATIC mayoral primary may not be particularly competitive so far — but Mayor de Blasio and long-shot challenger Sal Albanese showed up ready to brawl nonetheless.

The pair engaged in a roughand-tumble debate that saw Albanese, a little-known former city councilman, seeking to introduce himself as a fierce critic of de Blasio’s, fighting to reform a corrupt system that benefits the sitting mayor. De Blasio, the incumbent, swung back — rattling off accomplishments and not quite calling Albanese a liar, but deeming him someone “who consistently says things that aren’t factually true.”

The debate did produce more than just arguing — there were two promises elicited, both from the mayor. Asked to pledge that he wouldn’t run for President in 2020, de Blasio promised to serve four full years.

“I’m running for one thing and one thing only: for reelection as mayor of New York City,” de Blasio said when asked if he could pledge that he would not make a White House run.

Albanese didn’t buy it, and predicted the mayor would use his second term to boost his national profile.

“If Bill de Blasio gets reelected, the best job in the city will be to be his travel agent — you’ll never see him,” Albanese said.

And, using his one chance to ask the mayor a question, Albanese asked de Blasio to produce a long-promised list of donors who sought favors and didn’t get them.

De Blasio said he would publish an Op-Ed with examples of “people who made donations and asked for things and didn’t get them, because things are made on the merits” before Sept. 12, Primary Day.

The pair seemingly could agree on nothing. On how to fix the subway — the mayor proposed his millionaire’s tax; Albanese slammed his handling of the MTA as one of his “dereliction of duties,” called on him to put up more for the MTA as a “junior partner” to the governor, and insisted his tax was “dead on arrival.”

On the mayor’s plan to build 90 new homeless shelters — “Not going to happen,” Albanese said. He proposed instead a tax on wealthy properties owned by foreign investors, which itself has been dead-on-arrival for two years in Albany.

While de Blasio defended his plan to keep homeless New Yorkers closer to their neighborhoods, jobs and schools, Albanese accused him of ignoring the issue for two years — and of building affordable housing that’s too pricey for many people, a frequent criticism from the left.

“Again, factually inaccurate,”