Candidates for Durham's mayor and three City Council seats repeated their established themes as the campaign wound down this week toward Tuesday's election.

Incumbent Mayor Bill Bell and council members Cora Cole-McFadden (Ward 1), Howard Clement (Ward 2) and Mike Woodard (Ward 3) emphasized their experience and achievements during their terms in office.

Mayoral challenger Steven Williams and council challengers (in ward order) Donald Hughes, Matt Drew and Allan Polak have spoken of bringing "new leadership," "practical day-to-day experience," "fresh air" and "life skills" to City Hall.

All the candidates have emphasized their own qualifications and accomplishments, with little direct reference to their opponents. However, during a candidates' forum this week Polak called a statement by Woodard "a complete lie."

Polak had earlier criticized Woodard and Bell for overseas travel at city expense, and raised concerns about Woodard's connections with Duke University. Woodard is a Duke employee and graduate.

Woodard and Bell have said their trips have brought indirect benefits to the city, as will a $1 million business incentive approved earlier this month and spending $500,000 on a downtown skateboard park. Drew and Hughes, respectively, have singled those out as cases of waste.

Incumbents have also defended the city's attention to downtown revitalization against criticisms that it has come at the expense of blighted neighborhoods and the city's infrastructure.

Williams challenged Bell in the 2005 primary, but withdrew before the election. The other challengers are all new to the city's electoral politics.

Hughes has been endorsed by the influential Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, but his is the only challenger's campaign to win favor from any of the city's three major political-action organizations.

Bell, Clement and Woodard got the Committee's nod in their races, and all four incumbents were endorsed by the left-leaning Durham People's Alliance and the right-leaning Friends of Durham.

In this week's forum sponsored at the N.C. Central University Law School, the candidates tuned their messages toward youth.

"It is our time as young people to no longer remain pawns in this political process, we must move the pieces," said Hughes, who turned 22 this month.

Clement, 75 and a 26-year City Council veteran, talked about his weekly tutoring sessions at Fayetteville Street Elementary School: "I enjoy ... working with young people and ingraining in them the value of reading and arithmetic."

Challengers have also criticized the current council for Durham's continuing gang problem and deteriorated water and sewer lines. Incumbents have ticked off measures taken on those fronts and, in their own words, repeatedly echoed Clement's campaign "mantra":

"Experience does matter."