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The top three mayoral candidates met for the first time last night to debate at American University, trading barbs and exposing few policy differences that will help voters make a decision in November.

According to a recent Post-NBC4-Marist poll, Councilmember Muriel Bowser has 43 percent support among likely voters, while Councilmember Catania has 26 percent and former Councilmember Carol Schwartz has 16 percent. Below are five takeaways from last night’s debate, which can be viewed above.

This Will Be Contentious

Bowser and Catania took clear aim at one another, fact-checking each other’s statements and interrupting one another regularly.

Catania corrected Bowser when she said she wanted the concealed carry bill, crafted in response to a July court ruling, to limit where guns can be carried. (It does.) Bowser corrected Catania when he criticized her most touted legislation, the creation of an ethics board.

“What Ms. Bowser did was assemble ten bills that other people had largely written and add a board of,” Catania said before Bowser jumped in: “I have to correct you on that, Mr. Catania.”

“If we’re going to interrupt each other, it’s going to be a long debate,” Catania said. He was right.

Bowser criticized Catania after he talked about his work saving United Medical Center: “Mr. Catania has a very strange way of taking credit for everything.” When Catania said he had yet to attend a game at Nationals Park — he opposed the city’s involvement in its creation — Bowser said the fact “just kind of speaks to his temperament.” Catania said he simply wasn’t interested in attending.

Education Will Be A Major Topic

The jabs continued during questions about education.

“[Parents] want educators to run the schools; they don’t want M.C. Dean’s lawyer running the schools,” Bowser said, referring to Catania’s former job with the construction company.

Catania, who chairs the Council’s education committee, criticized Bowser for not introducing any education legislation, adding “you voted for every one of my measures, every last one.”

Both agreed that school boundary changes need to happen, but both would delay implementation.

“Boundaries could happen within a year,” Bowser said. Catania said “parental confidence is a key,” adding that schools should come up with individualized improvement plans over the next year.

Carol Schwartz Has Run For Mayor Five Times

“In case you’ve been on Mars and haven’t heard that yet.”

Schwartz has been out of the public eye just long enough to become a “Who?” to the many newcomers to the city. But she did not act like a third place finish was a foregone conclusion last night. When discussing ethics, Schwartz was happy to point out that the Council voted to close the LLC loophole in January 2015 — just in time for this election to end.

“And they’ve both been driving their cars through those loopholes,” she said of her opponents. “We have to lead by example.”

When Catania asked to respond to a question on education — “I just wondered if I was going to get included on education,” he said to laughs — Schwartz cracked, “Well, yeah. You’ve had a year-and-a-half’s experience, of course.”

But her time away from public life was apparent when discussing the family homelessness crisis. “D.C. General is not a bad place” for wraparound services, Schwartz said. “I think it could be an ideal facility if we cleaned it up.”

Residents of the aging hospital say it’s infested with bugs, and commonly without heat and hot water. The city has struggled to keep up with complaints about the facility, and officials have called for it to be closed.

The Investigation of Mayor Gray Is Still An Issue

When asked about the ongoing investigation into Mayor Vincent Gray’s alleged involvement in a shadow campaign conducted to his benefit, the three candidates each took a different approach.

Schwartz was the strongest to condemn the U.S. Attorney’s actions, saying “Either bring it or shut up already!” to applause. “If there’s something to bring, bring it, or leave the man alone,” she said, as people in crowd shouted “amen.”

Both Bowser and Catania called on Gray to resign after he was implicated in the scandal. Last night, Bowser went the diplomatic route, saying U.S. Attorney Ron Machen should follow every lead and follow his own timeline.

Catania said the “timing of the prosecutor’s decision was rather suspect,” as it came days before the April primary. “I think it did have an effect on the election.”

Tom Sherwood Is A National Treasure

The audience was a sea of green, with Bowser supporters packing the audience and regularly cheering. Catania supporters were also out in big numbers, including one who shouted “Park Southern!” at Bowser, referring to a troubled apartment complex with ties to a Bowser supporter, when she was discussing her ethics bill.

Sherwood was left to attempt crowd control with quips like, “We know what the applause sounds like. Let’s move on.” and “All right, ladies and gentleman. I use that term loosely.”

When Catania and Bowser got into a particularly heated argument about education, Sherwood shut it down, saying, “I’m calling time to stop this crossfire … It sounds like you need an education on behavior.”