Mayor Naheed Nenshi challenged deep-pocketed opponents to take a direct run at him instead of supporting ward candidates as a “proxy” against him.

Reporters weren’t let into the mayor’s $450-a-plate fundraiser Wednesday, but interviews with attendees and Twitter posts from people inside shed some light on his first 2013 campaign speech.

The mayor, a sought-after public speaker, didn’t apparently offer much by way of a specific re-election platform in his speech to donors, or deliver a barn-burner rife with applause lines.

But he did strike a lofty tone, the Herald was told. Two people likened it to a John F. Kennedy-style speech that urged Calgarians to ask what they can do for their city, not just what the city can do for them.

No candidates have stepped forward to take on the mayor yet. But Nenshi warned that those who want him politically neutralized will try getting aldermen elected who dislike him, according to both social media posts and Herald interviews.

“There are people with very deep pockets trying to elect a council that won’t work with the mayor.... I want them to speak up,” political blogger Joey Oberhoffner wrote on Twitter, citing Nenshi from inside the fundraiser at Jack Singer Concert Hall.

“Take me on. Don’t buy proxy aldermen.... You don’t like me? Take me on.”

Other attendees confirmed that was roughly what the mayor said.

There is a clutch of conservative-leaning ward candidates being trained by the Manning Centre think-tank, although founder Preston Manning has said he’s not running a slate. Nor has his group disclosed its program’s donors.

“He did mention that some people’s perception is that folks from certain industries or perhaps from certain ideological bents have decided that rather than try to take on a mayor that they perceive as not being beatable, they try and perhaps take on some proxies to council,” Oberhoffner said in an interview.

Nenshi exhorted these unnamed funders to not unseat good aldermen when their beef is with the mayor.

The crowd that entered Nenshi’s cocktail reception included oilpatch veteran Dick Haskayne, Liberal and Dave Bronconnier campaigner Daryl Fridhandler, downtown landowner Larry Ryder, and staff from Boardwalk Rental Communities and waste giant BFI Canada.

There were few of the suburban development executives who routinely attend municipal campaign functions. Nenshi’s relations with them has been testy, notably after he briefly blacklisted the Canadian Home Builders Association from city committees after the group’s Calgary president made public remarks the mayor said were untrue.

More than 360 people attended the fundraiser.

“I’ve heard a lot of it before, but some of it was presented a little differently and gave me a bit more insight of the sorts of things we all should be getting behind to build a better city,” said Ald. Richard Pootmans, one of two council colleagues at the event. (The other was Diane Colley-Urquhart.)

The campaign manager said media are banned from Nenshi fundraisers so that attendees can feel free to ask questions of the candidate for re-election without the media’s glare upon them. Questions after Nenshi’s speech included one about creating more green space downtown. The mayor apparently replied by stressing new parks are coming to the Beltline.