A St. Paul mayoral forum took an unexpected turn on Thursday when candidate Dai Thao aimed strong words at an unusual target — St. Paul City Council president Russ Stark.

“President Stark, who supports one of my opponents here, (went) on air … to attack me, to try to strip away my freedom from my family,” said Thao during a Minnesota Public Radio forum. “I have five kids.”

Thao blamed Stark for conducting a brief interview with KMSP-TV in April. Stark, who has endorsed former council member Melvin Carter III for mayor, was asked by reporter Tom Lyden at the time if Thao had a reputation for being a “transactional” politician.

“I’ve heard some things before,” said Stark. “I’ve heard that description.”

The future mayor of St. Paul is in this room! pic.twitter.com/MmciIrK5Ba — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) November 2, 2017

The KMSP report raised allegations that Thao, a city council member, and his campaign manager had sought a bribe from a lobbyist for the food container-industry. Following an investigation by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Scott County attorney’s office decided in September to dismiss the case without charges.

During the two-hour campaign forum with five of the 10 mayoral candidates at Minnesota Public Radio, Thao said he was victim of a “coordinated and sophisticated attack” and then laid into Stark, who represents Midway neighborhoods that border his own.

Stark has often voted with Thao, siding with him last year in a 5-2 decision to remove police officers from the Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission.

“For all I know, I’m the only candidate that’s been cleared of any allegations in this race,” Thao said, without elaborating. “I encourage all candidates to participate and to cooperate 100 percent in any investigation they’re in, to clear their name, so we can trust them.”

Later Thursday, Stark said he had not seen or heard the MPR forum, but he recalled being approached by Lyden without warning last April outside a ward caucus.

“Tom Lyden approached me, cameras rolling, and asked me if I had a comment,” Stark said. “I didn’t. It certainly is news to me if I played a role in an investigation. All I did is not shove a cameraman away.”

Mayoral campaign coverage, voter’s guide and video of MPR forum

One of the final campaign forums of the election season brought the five leading candidates for St. Paul mayor to the downtown studios of MPR, where news host Tom Weber pulled few punches in a lightning round of questions.

Weber asked former council member Pat Harris if he were “Norm Coleman 2.0.” The reference was to the former DFL mayor who switched parties and became a prominent voice within the state’s Republican Party.

“I’ve always wondered why people say that,” said Harris, a banker who has highlighted his “progressive” policies, from advocating for affordable housing to authoring the city’s “sanctuary city” ordinance. “My life record is really about providing opportunity. My grandma and grandpa came to this country from Armenia. They escaped genocide.”

Weber noted Green Party candidate Elizabeth Dickinson has never held elected office before and has no “executive level” experience. Dickinson pointed out that none of the other leading candidates have ever run a city, either.

“I’m on the national board of Clean Water Action, and we have multimillion-dollar budget that we oversee,” she said.

Former school board member Tom Goldstein was the first of four candidates to be eliminated from the running for the St. Paul DFL endorsement at the party’s city convention in June. Weber asked why voters should rank him first.

“I’m the only person here who has actually run a business and managed people,” said Goldstein, noting the other candidates have come up with plans they’ll never be able to fund. “I would surround myself with really smart people. I’ve been challenging the status quo for 20 years.”

Weber asked Carter if he or his campaign leaked text messages from the Thao campaign to KMSP in an effort to discredit the candidate, as Thao and others have alleged.

“No, of course not,” said Carter, who fell a few percentage points shy of winning the DFL endorsement in June. “We’ve been so busy doing grass-roots campaigning. … That’s what gave us the success we had at the city convention.”

Weber said despite the lack of criminal charges against Thao, the text messages seeking donations from a private lobbyist “were less than flattering,” and he asked if Thao would conduct business that way as mayor.

As a result of the investigation, “I grew 5 inches taller,” Thao responded. “The folks that came after me, I forgive them. This thing about being ‘transactional.’ … I’m comfortable with my record. What’s ‘transactional’ is career politicians who only show up at election time (to) advance their careers.”

In all, 10 candidates will appear on Tuesday’s ballot, and voters will be allowed to rank up to six choices.