It’s becoming obvious that the real action in this year’s mayoral race is happening between Mike Villarreal and Ivy Taylor.

That doesn’t mean Villarreal and Taylor are frontrunners in the race. In fact, there’s no guarantee that either of them will make it to the runoff that most of us see as the inevitable conclusion of this campaign.

It’s just that the friction, the competitive tension in the race, is primarily centered around these two natural-born technocrats who know that their only hope for survival past the May 9 election day is to vanquish the other.

You can feel the funky vibes between them whenever they’re in the same room, even when the microphones are off. While political competitors generally maintain the veneer of cordiality when they’re offstage, neither Taylor — the urban planner who was appointed mayor by the City Council last July — or Villarreal — the economics major who stepped down from the Texas House to run for Taylor’s seat — can do much to hide their mutual antipathy.

That tension bubbled up Tuesday during a live KTSA forum on which I served as a panelist.

Former County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson was the fidgety comic relief, responding to a question about the public-safety pension fund with this amusing, if incomprehensible, nugget: “This is why I tell my clients who are going through an ugly divorce, 'Don’t bring your girlfriend to the courthouse.’”

Former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte assumed a diplomatic tone, in an attempt to project a sense that she has the maturity and temperament to be a consensus builder at City Hall.

No one took any direct shots at Adkisson or Van de Putte, and they didn’t take any shots at anyone else.

The story was different with Villarreal and Taylor.

Villarreal zinged Taylor on a variety of issues: streetcars; the city’s failure to reach a collective-bargaining agreement with police and firefighters; the city’s ordinance regulating ride-hailing companies; and even the proposed charter amendment that would provide council members with a living wage.

All the candidates at the forum backed away from VIA Metropolitan Transit’s discarded streetcar plan, but Villarreal was the lone contender to shape the issue into an attack line, accusing Taylor (with a phrase famously used against John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race) of being “for it before she was against it.”

While the other candidates sang in unison on the need for San Antonio to pay its council members, Villarreal separated himself from the pack by using the issue to malign Taylor’s leadership.

“I think the (charter-amendment) proposal has merit,” he said, “but when I think about what makes an effective mayor, I think about priorities, and our top financial priority is getting right the contract between the city and its police officers and firefighters.”

Villarreal added, “We need to settle that before we move on to any other discussions about new financial obligations.” His obvious point is that Taylor does not meet the definition of an “effective mayor.”

Why is Villarreal directing so many of his darts at Taylor?

The obvious answer is that any candidate facing an incumbent has to explain to voters why that incumbent should be replaced. It’s not in the interest of any of Taylor’s challengers to suggest that city government is running smoothly these days.

But neither Van de Putte nor Adkisson has zeroed in on Taylor with the vehemence of Villarreal.

The fact is that while Taylor’s late entry in the race discombobulated all the major candidates, it hit Villarreal hardest.

Like Villarreal, Taylor is targeting North Side conservative voters. Like Villarreal, Taylor wants to make the case that she’s a nonpartisan figure for a nonpartisan office.

In fact, before Villarreal could tout his nonpartisanship Tuesday, Taylor trumped the field on that issue, correctly stating, “I’m the only one up here who hasn’t run on a partisan ticket.”

Before Taylor entered the tournament, Villarreal surely sensed that all he had to do was get past Adkisson to make it to the next round. With Taylor in the mix, things are more complicated. And noticeably more testy.

ggarcia@express-news.net