The two Democrats vying to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg faced off in the first round of mayoral debates Wednesday night.

Both City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Queens City Councilman Tony Avella wasted no time challenging the Mayor's record on education, employment, crime and the city budget.

Things also got heated when the candidates opened the old wound of term limits.

"The people of this city twice voted for term limits. The message could not have been clearer," Avella said. "And the arrogance, I'm sorry the arrogance of Billionaire Mike Bloomberg to think he's so important that he could overturn the term limits law, I think is disgraceful. I think he should be turned out for that reason alone."

"I think Mike Bloomberg's continual defense for wealthy New Yorkers says to the rest of this city that we need somebody different," Thompson said. "And I would agree also, after what he did with term limits; after that disgraceful run around of democracy -- I think New Yorkers when it comes down to it are going to look for somebody different."

Avella drew applause from the audience when he said if elected, he would end the NYPD's controversial stop and frisk policy and appoint a Deputy Mayor for Human Rights.

Thompson, a former president of the city Board of Education, said standardized tests don't work, and that children aren't learning.

The claims drew an immediate response from Mayor Bloomberg's campaign, who in a statement said, "Since Mayor Bloomberg took control of the schools, test scores and graduation rates are up and dropout rates and school violence are down. There is a clear contrast on the education records of Mayor Bloomberg and Bill Thompson."

Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday shows Thompson leading Avella 45 to 10 percent among Democratic voters, with 38 percent saying they are undecided.

The same poll shows Bloomberg leading Thompson, 50 to 35 percent.

Another hypothetical race between Bloomberg and Avella has the mayor win by 55-28 percent.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,290 registered voters from August 18-24 for the poll, which has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.