Mayor Bill de Blasio's Democratic challengers have largely been toiling in his shadow, but they now may get their chance to debate him before next month's primary. Meanwhile, candidates on both sides of the aisle are knocking de Blasio for pulling millions in public dollars into his campaign. NY1 Political Reporter Grace Rauh filed the following report.

Sal Albanese, a former city councilman who is challenging Mayor de Blasio in the Democratic primary, is struggling to gain traction.

But now Albanese will have a chance to go head-to-head with de Blasio on the debate stage.

"People will see there is a viable option to this mayor," Albanese told me. "I believe that when I'm matched up against de Blasio, we're going to do very, very well."

Albanese needs to raise and spend close to $175,000 to force the mayor into a debate under the city's Campaign Finance Board rules.

He said he is going to do it, and that by volunteering to debate, de Blasio was just trying to score points.

"I will qualify," Albanese said. "So in order to make himself look Democratic and open, he's now saying he's going to debate. He'll have no choice."

NY1 will host the first Democratic primary debate if Albanese meets the Campaign Finance Board's requirements.

Bob Gangi, a police reform activist who is also running in the Democratic primary, praised the mayor's willingness to debate.

"We're very pleased about it," Gangi told NY1.

Unlike Albanese, Gangi has no real shot at doing an official debate with de Blasio. So far, Gangi has raised just $13,000 and loaned his campaign another $50,000 for his bid against the mayor.

"He's got to be ready for very hard questions," the Democratic challenger said about de Blasio.

As for the Campaign Finance Board's decision to inject the mayor's campaign with $2.6 million in public-matching funds, de Blasio's Republican challenger ripped the mayor for making the request.

"This is not a mayor who has put the taxpayers' interests first," said Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, the presumptive Republican nominee for mayor.

De Blasio argued that he needed millions of dollars in public money for his campaign because his Democratic opponents were getting significant media coverage.