Carl Paladino hasn’t given up on petitioning his way on the GOP ballot for governor, but today he announced he also plans to run on the yet-to-be-formed, independent Taxpayer line.

The Buffalo businessman says he’ll be joined on the new line by his lieutenant governor pick, Tom Ognibene, along with US Senate candidates Gary Bernsten and David Malpass, who are running against Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand respectively and have already secured spots on the Republican ballot.

Paladino says thousands of volunteers are already gathering the minimum 15,000 voter signatures necessary to create the line.  State election law requires that at least 100 of those signatures come from each of half the state’s 29 congressional districts.

The Paladino campaign held an online naming contest for the new line.  The winning name was T.E.A.: Taxed Enough Already, but Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo says the name was shortened to Taxpayers to highlight the importance of the word “tax.”

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