How to watch, what to expect

The top Democratic candidates in the unruly House race to represent lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn are scheduled to square off Wednesday night in a key primetime debate on PIX11.

The TV tilt arrives at an uncertain time in the campaign for New York’s 10th Congressional District, deeply Democratic territory that stretches from the West Village in Manhattan to Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.

The hour-long debate is set to air at 8 p.m. Eastern on PIX11 and to stream on the network’s Facebook page. Two of PIX11 journalists, Ayana Harry and Henry Rosoff, have been chosen to host.

In a race for a newly drawn district that once attracted more than a dozen candidates — including, briefly, former Mayor Bill de Blasio — PIX11 has narrowed the field to five top contenders: Dan Goldman, City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, Rep. Mondaire Jones and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon.

Another candidate, Elizabeth Holtzman, 81, has been seen as a long-shot contender and scored an endorsement from the Daily News editorial board. But she failed to garner 5% support in an Emerson College poll used to select participants.

Goldman, a one-time federal prosecutor who helped impeach former President Donald Trump, has emerged as the race’s perceived front-runner with early voting underway, though Rivera has locked up deep labor support, and Niou has significant backing in the progressive activist community.

The ultrawealthy Goldman, heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, is the most moderate leading contender in the field, and his progressive rivals have united in an effort to take him down before Primary Day next week.

The debate may serve as an hour-long opportunity for Rivera, Niou, Jones and Simon to make Goldman their rhetorical punching bag.

“He’s going to be the target tonight,” said Sid Davidoff, a longtime lobbyist and fixture in New York politics. “I see them all coming at him.”

Hours before the debate, former President Donald Trump offered Goldman an unwanted endorsement, perhaps offering fresh fodder.

Goldman, of Tribeca, was endorsed by the editorial board of The New York Times on Saturday and came in first in the Emerson poll of the race published Monday.

Jones joined Niou, of the Financial District, at a Monday news conference dedicated to tearing into Goldman.

Flanked by signs screaming that “NYC is NOT for Sale,” the pair argued that their rival is attempting to buy his way into the House. Goldman, who lacks legislative experience, poured almost $2 million into his own campaign last month, according to campaign finance records.

“Conservative Democrat Dan Goldman cannot be allowed to purchase this congressional seat,” declared Jones, a first-term congressman who moved to Brooklyn from the suburbs after he was drawn out of his district.

Rivera, of Manhattan’s Kips Bay, did not join the news conference but told the Daily News on Monday that the “district needs more than a one-note Daddy Warbucks in Congress.”

And Simon, who also missed the news conference, took to Twitter to rip Goldman after the Times endorsement was published. “A man with no ties to community issues,” she wrote. “Not what our community needs or deserves.”

After the publication of the Times endorsement, Goldman said he was expecting attacks “because it’s an ugly, ugly game.”

“I am a career public servant. I am trying to do this because I want to serve the people of this district and this country,” he said outside his Park, Slope, Brooklyn field office Saturday. “We’re not going to change our positive message.”