The fortunes of small business are turning out to be battleground for votes in the November 3rd mayoral election.

With both the incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Democratic challenger William "Bill" Thompson slugging it out on the campaign trail across the City, the small business issue is taking on a higher profile as the candidates promise owners of such enterprises a better deal during the next four years. And that's particularly true for those enterprises owned by women and ethnic minorities such as Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in the five boroughs that make up the City.

"It is important that small businesses succeed in our City," the Mayor told journalists recently at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in Manhattan. "Collectively they are among the largest employers and they should be given every opportunity to thrive."

Thompson, who has criticized the Mayor for what he calls his "poor track record in affordable housing" and for "making the City too expensive for the working poor and the middle class," also fires away at Bloomberg on the small business question.

"We know that small businesses are the backbone of our economy, but the Mayor's focus for the past eight years has been on Wall Street, Wall Street, Wall Street," Thompson, the Comptroller, said in a recent interview. "The past four years in particular have been the toughest for small enterprises and entrepreneurs, but the Mayor has done very little to ease their pain, preferring instead to give concessions to Wall Street while ignoring our small businesses. Now as he seeks re-election after eight years of dominating City Hall, he is promising to do all of these great things for them. Is he believable? I say no. Look at his record and voters can answer the question unequivocally."

For his part, Mayor Bloomberg is pointing to the growth in City services for small businesses, especially technical help and the favorable business climate in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens before the economy fell off a cliff in 2008.

He has pledged that once re-elected to redouble efforts to give small enterprises more assistance and to open up the pipeline to more concessions and a greater chunk of City business to neighborhood firms.

"It's important that they be aided and that they are in a position to benefit significantly from a rebound in the economy," the Mayor was quoted recently as saying.

He was also insistent that immigrant-owned business should be placed on a pathway to success because of their role in revitalizing neighborhoods.

As Thompson sees it, small business owners, "especially the mom and pop operations" in our neighborhoods, are being undermined by the high taxes and the fees engineered by Bloomberg since taking over the helm at City Hall eight years ago.

"These enterprises need assistance through relief in the fees and taxes they have to pay. They are also crying out for improvements in the general business atmosphere. Yes, there's a lot the Mayor can do," he said. "The City spends billions every year and it is absolutely necessary that small business enterprises get a larger share of that."

Thompson, the grandson of Caribbean immigrants who lived in Brooklyn for most of their lives, insists the Mayor who made "billions" in business before entering the political arena eight years ago and therefore should have used his "experience" and "acumen" to boost the bottom line of the stores, light manufacturing operations, services providers and others who "line the streets of our neighborhoods" or otherwise do business out of their homes.

"Just imagine how small businesses could have thrived if the City administration had been more active. Many of the small businesses employ a handful of persons, often two or three, and with the tens of thousands of them experiencing difficult times, we would have been far better off helping them than instead of putting so much emphasis on Wall Street," Thompson said. "We know that businesses owned by immigrants have been vital for decades in our neighborhood and in providing people with jobs. That's where I would put a lot of our energy, going forward when I become Mayor."

Just the other day, State Senator John Sampson, chairman of the State Senate Democratic Conference, who engineered a $15 million state grant to the Brooklyn Navy Yard so that it could develop a facility to aid small businesses, said that it was clear that such enterprises need help.

"They are essential to economic success of our City and they [need] assistance," said Sampson who along with his Brooklyn legislative colleagues, including State Senators Kevin Parker (D-District 21) and Eric Adams (D-District 20), paved the way for the grant. "Obviously, more can and should be done for them in Brooklyn and the rest of the City. Caribbean immigrant business persons must be included in the project at the Navy yard and we believe the Navy yard is well-placed to provide it."

Incidentally, Sampson, Parker and Adams have endorsed Thompson's mayoral run and they cite his positions on a range of issues, including small business as a key reason.