In soliciting the endorsement of the Working Families Party and likely that party’s line on the November ballot, Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio could push his election contest with City Councilor Michael Passero beyond the Sept. 16 Democratic primary, even if Passero were to win the primary and seize the Democratic line.

Winning as a third-party candidate, rather than the endorsed Democrat, would be a more difficult challenge for the incumbent New London mayor. But it would keep him in the race for a general election that will attract more voters than the primary, a playing field on which the mayor thinks he has a better chance.

When he sat down with me recently to discuss the city budget, Finizio made his re-election policy clear. He is seeking to position himself as the defender of the city’s working poor, Passero as the protector of the well-heeled out-of-town landlords and those who live along the shoreline in the city’s South End, folks who Finizio said are often crying crocidle tears when they say they cannot afford another tax increase to maintain city services.

"Their neighorhood playscape and ballfield is all they’ve got and Mr. Passero ... wants to cut the money to maintain them to meet some arbitrary mill-rate target," Finizio said of kids living in New London’s urban neighborhoods.

Sure sounds like political class warfare. Though he has had a couple of bad weeks — proposing a big tax increase and mismanaging the costly drama surrounding his suspended police Chief Margaret Ackley — Finizio will not go quietly.

He labeled as "Deja vu, all over again" a series of budget reductions Passero pushed through the Finance Committee to cut the mayor’s proposed tax increase by half. The cuts included $1.2 million in reductions to expenses that the city is mandated to spend, such as health insurance, paying gas bills, meeting pension obligations and providing police uniforms required by contract, said Finance Director Jeff Smith. Another $500,000 in cuts pushed by Passero will devastate city services, Finizio said. It is the same reckless budgeting practices that previously sent the city into deficit and squandered its fund balance, the mayor charged.

"And the impact of these cuts will fall disproportionately on people of lower incomes," he added, taking out that class card again.

Then came the real zinger, pointing out Passero proposed cutting only 2 percent from the New London Fire Department, the smallest percentage cut he offered. Passero is a New London firefighter.

"It’s borderline corruption when you have public employees sitting on the City Council," said Finizio, who has called for a charter change to prohibit the practice. Passero says he will retire from the department if elected.

It will be tough to fit this glove on Passero. It doesn’t get more blue collar than a career firefighter. Trying to label Passero as a defender of the priviledged is a stretch. Passero has called the city’s diversity — economically, culturally and ethnically — a source of strength.

And the political reality is that by proposing a 12.5 percent tax increase in an election year, and giving his opponent on the council the chance to attack it, the mayor played into Passero’s hands. Voters are more likely to remember Passero proposing a series of cuts to restore fiscal discipline than they are going to remember that many of those cuts were not terribly practical or that he largely spared the fire service.

On the other hand, overconfidence may have crept into the Passero camp, a feeling that the mayor cannot recover from his self-inflicted wounds. I would not count him out.

Paul Choiniere is the editorial page editor.

Twitter: @Paul_Choiniere