Wichita ? Mayoral candidate Bill Warren on Friday accused his opponent of offering to support the proposed Wichita Waterwalk project in exchange for campaign funds.

Choking back tears during a forum sponsored by the Downtown Kiwanis Club, Warren pointed a quivering finger at opponent Carlos Mayans, who was sitting at a nearby table.

Warren said he had heard Mayans had promised businessman Jack DeBoer he would support the waterwalk project if DeBoer would help him raise $5,000 for his mayoral campaign.

“I don’t know what you think about this, but I call it dishonest,” Warren said. “I have every intention to go to the FBI and charging this man. I am telling you this man is not an honest politician.”

Warren said a grand jury needed to investigate Mayan’s campaign.

“This is not my city — this is not the way my city should be conducted. This is not the way politics is run in Wichita, Kansas,” Warren said. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t like dirty politics.”

Mayans ignored Warren’s outburst as the candidates fielded questions from Kiwanis members about more mundane city issues.

Mayans and DeBoer denied the incident ever happened.

After the forum, Mayans called Warren’s statement “slanderous” and “outrageous.”

Mayans said his campaign would continue to focus on the issues.

“He is not a well man,” Mayans said of his opponent.

DeBoer told The Associated Press he met Mayans once while attending a meeting with five other people to discuss the waterwalk and downtown development.

“There absolutely was no discussion of political contributions,” DeBoer said. “I have not given any money to either mayoral candidate, and I have not met or spoken with Bill Warren.”

Friday’s allegations came 11 days before Wichita residents go to the polls to elect the replacement for seven-term Mayor Bob Knight. The general election is April 1.

Fifteen candidates initially filed to run for the office, and the Feb. 25 primary weeded the field down to two. Mayans received 28 percent of the vote and Warren, who had a big lead in the polls before the primary, got 20 percent.

On the campaign trail, Mayans likes to tell people how at 13 he came to Wichita with nothing more than two changes of clothes and a pair of shoes.

Mayans, 54, is one of hundreds of so-called Peter Pan children who were sent alone to the United States by their Cuban parents in hopes they would find a better life. He ended up in a Wichita orphanage and later grew up in foster care.

In 1992, he was elected as a Republican legislator representing Wichita, and was re-elected in subsequent elections. He decided not to run for re-election in 2002 so he could seek the mayoral post.

Warren, 54, is a newcomer to politics. He owns five theaters in Wichita, with a sixth under construction.