Shedding the traditional play-it-safe strategy of a front-runner, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, dominated the hourlong confrontation, pursuing the last word in every exchange, pleading with the panelists for longer response times and throwing his less agile opponent off balance with pointed cross-examinations.
Mr. Lhota, a Republican, arrived determined to raise questions about Mr. de Blasio's thin managerial resume, to portray him as an overly conciliatory liberal unprepared to face down crime and to depict his social agenda as ruinous to the city's already shrinking middle class.
Instead, Mr. Lhota spent much of the evening defending the fare increases during his time as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, explaining why he met with Tea Party members on Staten Island and justifying his wish to delay the start of President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
At times, Mr. Lhota was left to protest that Mr. de Blasio was trying to inaccurately "lump me with national Republicans."
"It's unbecoming, Bill," said Mr. Lhota, a supporter of same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
But Mr. de Blasio kept on the same line of attack, repeating it over and over.
"The fact is he does subscribe to the views of the Republican Party that have hurt New York City," Mr. de Blasio said.
The debate, on WABC-TV, seemed to showcase the nimbleness of Mr. de Blasio, a longtime political operative who is now the city's public advocate, even as it revealed the depth of Mr. Lhota's difficulties in front of a large audience.
Instead of exposing Mr. de Blasio's weaknesses, Mr. Lhota, a former deputy mayor under Mayor Giuliani, found himself consistently outmaneuvered.
The body language was revealing: Mr. Lhota seldom made eye contact with Mr. de Blasio. In fact, his eyes often drooped closed for several seconds. He frequently seemed tangled in the nuances of his own policy plans, expending precious minutes that might have been used to deliver his own attacks.
At one point, he became bogged down in a laborious and academic-sounding debate over the constitutionality of "mandatory inclusionary zoning," a policy that requires affordable housing in certain developments.
Even the debate's moderator, Bill Ritter, a news anchor on WABC, seemed a bit dazed after the discussion, thanking the candidates for spending so much time on an arcane and admittedly unsexy topic.
In the end, there was no crystallizing moment or memorable gaffe that underdog campaigns crave as they try to shake up the dynamic of a race.
Mr. de Blasio proved adept at sidestepping questions he did not like. Invited to offer two ideas for negotiating with municipal unions, he pivoted into a critique of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg administration's attitude toward labor that ended with the milquetoast declaration that "we have to balance our budget."
And asked to explain how his meager management experience qualified him to be mayor, Mr. de Blasio seemed to ignore the question entirely, starting into a non sequitur about Mr. Lhota's work in the Giuliani administration and listing endorsements from high-profile Democrats.
Though both candidates sometimes seemed scolding and self-serious, there were a few lighter moments. Dave Evans, a reporter for WABC, recalled the Democratic nominee's meteoric rise, saying that just a few months ago, "most people didn't know who Bill de Blasio was."
Mr. de Blasio cut in: "Dave, I agree."
There was an inevitable exchange of dueling sports team allegiances. Mr. Lhota teased Mr. de Blasio for his Boston loyalties, saying he could accept Mr. de Blasio's support for the Red Sox, but drew the line at his fondness for the Celtics.
"The thing that bothers me the most," said Mr. Lhota, a former executive at Madison Square Garden, home to the Knicks, "you've got to support our basketball teams here in the city."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 15, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the organization that Joseph J. Lhota once ran. It is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, not the Metropolitan Transportation Agency.
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