Fernando Ferrer, a Democratic candidate for mayor, was endorsed by a cross section of Brooklyn politicians yesterday, while another candidate, C. Virginia Fields, assailed the mayor and the governor over the delays in rebuilding at ground zero.
The endorsement of Mr. Ferrer, from a multiracial group that represents neighborhoods as disparate as Crown Heights, Park Slope and Bensonhurst, was intended to show that he can appeal to a broad cross section of New Yorkers.
The officials said they were supporting Mr. Ferrer because of his advocacy of lower-cost housing and for improving the lot of middle class New Yorkers and even for a controversial plan to raise money for schools by imposing a tax on stock transfers. Critics have said such a tax would burden Wall Street firms and lead to job losses.
The Ferrer supporters included State Senator Kevin Parker, who was charged with misdemeanor assault earlier this year, after the police said he punched a traffic agent in the face as she wrote a ticket for his double-parked car.
"As you know, I know about fighting, and nobody's going to fight more for this city than Freddy Ferrer," Mr. Parker said, smiling broadly.
Meanwhile, Ms. Fields, the Manhattan borough president, made her most extensive remarks about the increasingly troubled rebuilding plans at the site of the former World Trade Center.
"It is certainly mind-boggling to me that security is affecting the design so late in the development process, and that is why I call this a colossal failure and I believe that is a mild description of what has just happened," Ms. Fields said at a news conference at her office.
She said Mr. Bloomberg had "ceded control over downtown redevelopment to George Pataki in return for gaining control over development of the West Side railyards and a stadium for the Jets." Part of the problem, she asserted, was the lack of elected officials, including herself, on the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board, which was appointed by the mayor and governor.
The Bloomberg campaign denied that Mr. Bloomberg had turned away from downtown and released a statement in response that said he had "gone out of his way to keep politics and politicking away from ground zero, and it is unfortunate that the candidates for mayor are not following this example."
They also had the chairman of the Republican Party in Manhattan, James Ortenzio, assert that Ms. Fields had not been prominent in advocating rebuilding at the trade center site, leaving it up to representatives to make her concerns known.
Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the governor, said, "It's sad that naysaying opportunists have forgotten that we need to work together to rebuild Lower Manhattan."
Ms. Fields said she had not consulted with Mr. Bloomberg or Mr. Pataki on the progress of the rebuilding but assumed the people directing the project would have kept security concerns paramount.