That’s how Civil Beat Reporter-Host Michael Levine described the tone of Wednesday night’s KITV-Civil Beat debate between Honolulu mayoral candidates Peter Carlisle, Ben Cayetano and Kirk Caldwell.

One of the trends that emerged during the debate was a tag-team effort to attack Caldwell, the former Honolulu managing director who lost to Carlisle in a 2010 special election for mayor.

Here’s an excerpt:

The first instance of Carlisle and Cayetano ganging up on Caldwell came about 15 minutes into the 90-minute debate. Both said Caldwell would be unlikely to get a good deal for taxpayers in negotiations with unions because he’s too friendly with them.

“Kirk has been endorsed by the unions because they know that he will go along with what they want,” Cayetano said, pointing to civil service reforms implemented during his time as governor. “They will not come without hard bargaining, and so far I haven’t seen that in Kirk. He basically goes along to get along.”

Carlisle agreed.

“The previous wisdom had it so that you’d always cave in to the public workers and the police and the fire and then ultimately you would automatically get elected because of their power,” Carlisle said. “That no longer exists as a paradigm, and as a matter of fact it’s better for the taxpayers in general that city employees are not getting unreasonable benefits.”

Caldwell said his inclusive style would help get people to the table and would ultimately lead to a fair deal for workers who only want to help serve the public.

“I will find a balance. That’s my style,” Caldwell said.

If you want more you can get it here. Enjoy.

— Nick Grube