As they highlight affordability agendas, candidates will focus on what can be done quickly.

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The Campaign Finance Board ruled that Mr. Blake and Ms. Ramos did not meet the fund-raising, polling or spending thresholds needed to qualify for the second debate. Mr. Blake and Ms. Ramos disagreed, and Mr. Blake took his case to court.

Yesterday, a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan ruled that the board was not in "violation of law" and did not act in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner in excluding Mr. Blake.

So instead of shooting darts at Mr. Cuomo, as he did for much of last week's debate, Mr. Blake plans to attend a Rent Guidelines Board hearing and may pop onto social media to chime in as the debate progresses.

"You essentially have an election where you will have a likely total of two times where you're on stage with Andrew Cuomo," Mr. Blake said in an interview of the former governor and front-runner, who has run a so-called rose garden strategy of limiting his visibility during the primary. "I mean, that's the real ballgame there."

Mr. Blake said his debate performance had done wonders for his campaign, which has seen a recent increase in endorsements and fund-raising.

Ms. Ramos, who has also struggled with fund-raising and in the polls, said that if she were invited to the debate, she would have tried to reassure New Yorkers "they'll have a mayor who will fight to keep our families together." She said she was referring to Mr. Cuomo and herself.

She added she would have been prepared for the inevitable criticism of her endorsing Mr. Cuomo.

"I'm focused on delivering for working New Yorkers, not playing politics and that's especially true when Donald Trump is declaring war on immigrant communities," she said.

Mr. Blake, who is at the bottom of most polls, has focused on ending credit checks and lowering income eligibility for city housing lotteries.

He had already settled on his closing argument. "There is no one giving you a better vision of how to address the affordability crisis than me," he said.