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Carl Paladino
Carl Honors Carl
Oct 18th - 1:31 pm
Our Buffalo station sent along an invite to a fundraiser being hosted in Liverpool (just outside Syracuse) Wednesday night, hosted by Carl Paladino in honor of…Carl Paladino.
As you’ll recall, the GOP/Conservative gubernatorial hopeful’s much-hyped three-minute televised address earlier this month featured a pitch for “emergency” contributions from his campaign chairwoman, former Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples.
Of course, that was overshadowed by Paladino’s remark about the “prowess” of his Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo.
It’s unusual, but not unheard of, for candidates to host their own fundraisers. Usually, however, they have supporters do it for them – perferably with some well-known name as a draw. Paladino doesn’t have too many of those, however, so he’s opted to throw his own party.
The Buffalo businessman has said he’ll spend up to $10 million of his own money on his campaign, but that has yet to materialize. So far, he’s spending a lot of cash on consultants and staffers, and also paying his own firms for rent and TV ads.
Details of the event:
HOLIDAY INN
441 Electronics Parkway
Liverpool, New York 130885:30 – 7:30 p.m. Reception
$250 per Person
The Post For Cuomo, Tentatively
Oct 18th - 7:04 am
The Post has endorsed Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo for governor, while making quite clear it still has considerable reservations about the AG and his ability to clean up Albany, pledging to “fully monitor his progress, and to offer advice when appropriate.”
The paper, whose parent company, News Corp., has contributed $1.25 million to the Republic Governors Association so far this year and has endorsed only GOP candidates thus far in NYS races, expressed disappointment that the implosion of Cuomo’s opponent, Carl Paladino (“Spitzer Lite, an an elephant suit”), has essentially given the AG a “press pass” throughout the campaign.
Nevertheless, the paper has decided to throw its considerable weight behind the man who, in its words, “appears to be an ambitious, articulate attorney general who has presented detailed plans for New York’s future which reveal a realistic understanding of the state’s problems and prospects and the seriousness of purpose needed to address them.”
“It is on that basis that The Post today endorses Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for governor – in the hope, if not necessarily the full expectation, that he will be the strong, reform-driven chief executive the Empire State so desperately needs. And thought it was getting in 2006.”
The Post isn’t happy about Cuomo’s willingness to engage in “transactional politics,” or his acceptance of the Working Families Party line. But he’s a far sight better in the tab’s eyes than Paladino, who “revealed himself to be undisciplined, unfocused and untrustworthy – that is, fundamentally unqualified for the office he seeks.”
Air Cuomo: No Abortion Rights In ‘Carl’s New York’
Oct 16th - 2:18 pm
Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo has released a hard-hitting new attack ad that slams his GOP/Conservative opponent, Carl Paladino, on the issue of choice, saying the Buffalo businessman would make women who are victims of rape or incest “victims a second time” by denying them access to abortion services.
Paladino has been under attack by abortion-rights advocates since expressing his extremely conservative opinion on choice on national TV shortly after his Sept. 14 GOP primary win. He also makes clear on his campaign Website that he opposes using public funds to “promote or perform” abortions.
Cuomo has been running ads that seek to contrast his own experience with Paladino’s and seek to turn the “Albany insider” attack back on his opponent by highlighting his campaign contributions and the fact that he has benefitted from Empire Zone tax breaks without creating many jobs.
This “Carl’s New York” approach is a new line of attack and one I expect we’ll see more of in the coming weeks…perhaps with spots that note the candidate’s desire to dramatically cut Medicaid, which Cuomo says would require the closure of hundreds of hospitals.
Paladino Hires
Oct 15th - 1:15 pm
Amid widespread consensus that his campaign is rudderless (at best) and in complete chaos (at worst), Carl Paladino has added bulked up his staff in hopes of righting the ship heading into the final weeks of the governor’s race, a source familiar with the new additions confirmed.
On the political side, the Buffalo businessman has added two members of Gotham Management Group:
- Lynn Krogh, a former Pataki administration aide who worked until the bitter end with Paladino’s vanquished GOP primary foe, Rick Lazio, and was widely praised for her vote counting operation that blocked Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy from getting on the ballot at the convention.
- Andrew Abdel-Malik, who worked on former US Senate hopeful David Malpass’ unsuccessful campaign this past fall. Other credits include former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s failed 2008 presidential bid, as well as a stint at the RNC, the Bush White House and the House Republican Policy Committee.
- Vince Casale, who runs a Cooperstown-based consulting firm, The Casale Group, with his father, former Assemblyman Anthony Casale, who was helping Onondaga County Comptroller Bob Antonacci with his never-realized bid for statewide office earlier this year.
On the communications side, the following people have signed on:
- Kirk Bell. Worked with Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo and his mentor, Roger Stone, on Jack Kemp’s 1988 presidential bid.
- Michael Johns, a former George H.W. Bush administration speechwriter and former top aide to ex-New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean. He’s also a leader in the national Tea Party movement.
Apparently, both Bell and Johns are members of the Jefferson Ale Club, which has been described to be as a “secret society” of conservatives formed by a number of low-ranking Reagan appointees in the 1980s.
Report: Paladino Campaign Manager Offered To Quit (Updated)
Oct 15th - 12:51 pm
The Buffalo News’ Tom Precious is reporting that Carl Paladino’s campaign manager, Michael Caputo, offered to quit in the wake of the anti-gay statements the GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidate made last weekend to ultra-Orthodox rabbis.
According to Precious, Paladino insisted Caputo remain with him through the end of the campaign.
Caputo declined to comment to the News. I e-mailed him a link to the story and have not yet heard back.
UPDATE: I just received the following one-word response, which said only: “Correct.” UPDATE2: YNN Buffalo’s Stephen Marth spoke to Caputo, who said: “I can confirm that I offered to resign, but Carl told me not to. It’s something I’m not going to go on the air about.”
Earlier this week, Caputo took responsibility for allowing Rabbi Yehuda Levin to wrote at least one version of the speeches the Buffalo businessman gave in Brooklyn. (Levin insists he didn’t write the version that included the “brainwashed” line, which Paladino delivered, and the “dysfunctional” line, which he didn’t).
“It’s still on me. I’m the campaign manager. I have to take responsibility,” Caputo told reporters Tuesday night at a fundraiser outside Albany.
“It’s the duty of the campaign manager to fall on his sword. I wouldn’t be a very professional person if I didn’t admit to my mistake.”
Phillips All In For Paladino
Oct 14th - 5:23 pm
Republican congressional candidate George Phillips, whose effort to oust veteran Democratic incumbent Rep. Maurice Hinchey has garnered national attention of late, told me without hesitation during a CapTon interview last night that he will definitely be voting for Carl Paladino on Nov. 2.
“I agree with his message on reforming Albany – one term for governor, trying to reign in the spending, taking on the career politicians in Albany,” Phillips said.
“I think he’s the man to do it versus Andrew Cuomo, whose had a record of just being involved in big government programs. HUD, in the years that laid the groundwork for the financial disaster…that put us in the bind that we’re in today. So, I do support Carl Paladino for governor.”
When I asked about Paladino’s controversial statements, his e-mails and allegations from Democrats that he is a racist, sexist, homophobe who should be denounced by all Republican candidates, Phillips replied:
“I’ve seen Carl Paladino around. I don’t believe he’s racist. I don’t think there’s anything that would suggest that he is – legitimate, legitimate evidence that would suggest that. I think he wants to shake up Albany.”
“This election is more than about Paladino or Phillips or the other candidates. It’s that people are sick of the mess in Albany, the mess in Washington. They’ve had enough. I think that’s why so many people went for Paladino in the primary. He still has a lot of support.”
It’s getting increasingly rare for Republican candidates to embrace Paladino so whole-heartedly. Several GOP incumbents are even now publicly saying they’re unsure if they’ll be voting for him in the wake of the anti-gay comments mess last weekend in Brooklyn.
Paladino’s Upstate Ally
Oct 14th - 8:47 am
GOP/Conservative gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino is not alone in igniting a firestorm of criticism with anti-gay comments. An upstate GOP congressional candidate who says he’s an ally of the Buffalo businessman is finding himself in a similar situation.
Leonard Roberto, a Republican challenging Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins in the 27th CD, reportedly called homosexuality a practice condemned by God during a town hall meeting on Tuesday night.
The candidate said he had made his comments without knowing members of the media were in the room. Although he didn’t follow Paladino’s lead by apologizing, he did insist he’s not a “hatemonger” and claimed his words had been “tongue-in-cheek.”
(Rroberto) said he wants that known in an environment that expects people to be politically correct in an attempt to placate everyone.
Instead, he said he opposes gay marriage as a pastor based on his understanding of scripture. He said he is not “a hatemonger” adding God loves homosexuals but not homosexuality; (God) loves murderers, but not murder, Roberto said.
Roberto said he wants people to know his position instead of relying on ambiguities that surround social issues.
“Truth often offends people,” he said, adding the truth of his stance is homosexuality is not acceptable as people do not have the right to “corrupt themselves.” Roberto has aligned himself with gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. Roberto said a political group he founded, Primary Challenge, has helped with Paladino’s petitions.
Levin Unplugged
Oct 14th - 7:23 am
Rabbi Yehuda Levin appeared on “The Last Word” With Lawrence O’Donnell last night to defend himself in the wake of the Carl Paladino/anti-gay statement mess, and he continued to sound awfully supportive of the Buffalo businessman, despite the fact that he had just rescinded his endorsement several hours earlier.
Levin said he wrote one version of Paladino’s speech, but not the one that included the “brainwashing” line that caused the latest uproar. He said a “mysterious stranger” wrote that, adding that he has an “idea” about that person’s identity, but is keeping it a secret.
Levin rejected the suggestion that his comments or the words he wrote for the candidate incite violence, adding: “We are the victims; I haven’t seen an Orthodox Jew beating up on a homosexual, calling them the kinds of kinds that I’ve been receiving: F-you, pig, die – just because I’m standing up for my religion.”
When O’Donnell asked Levin about Paladino’s pornographic e-mails and how he could possibly support a person whose personal actions aren’t in keeping with his public pronouncements, the rabbi replied:
“I’d rather have a person – try to get this – I’d rather have a person who does all kinds of bad things in his private life but publicly, in terms of the legislation he will sponsor, will be a hypocrite, but will let my children grow up. And that’s the answer. It’s a million times more important. And by the way, a guy like that to carry the baby to term is one in a million. Everyone else – rich, wealthy – get rid of the evidence.”
New Jersey Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, an officer on the New York Board of Rabbis, who joined Levin on the show, said the controversial ultra-Orthodox rabbi “doesn’t represent the flavor of Judaism for me and for most of the Jewish people in the world.”
Hey, Honey! We Don’t Do PC Here
Oct 13th - 5:07 pm
GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino was trying hard to stay on message at a campaign stop in Boonville today, and more or less managed to do so at first, refusing to respond to questions about Rabbir Yehuda Levin’s disendorsement, for example, and insisting the anti-gay comment mess is now behind him.
Things were all going along just fine until he addressed a female reporter as “honey,” and then launched into a rejection of political correctness, saying it has been “used by people to control other people, and that’s not right.”
“I think people expect, the people of the state of New York expect, people to get out there and be genuine and say exactly what’s on their minds so we get to know them,” Paladino continued.
“Who’s the real person there, you know? I mean Andrew wants to stand around and say that he’s politically correct. I don’t need that. I don’t need it at all. That’s not where I come from.”
The same reporter then noted that some people think Paladino is homophobic and asked: “Would you say that’s the kind of person you are?”
” I tell you I’m off of that topic,” the Buffalo businessman reponded. “Do I look like that to you?”
E-Mailgate II? (Updated)
Oct 13th - 3:10 pm
Here we go again?
WNYMedia.net, the site that released racist, pornographic and sexist e-mails forwarded by GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, has posted Round II.
The site is very clearly anti-Paladino and makes no secret of the fact that it hopes to undercut the candidate’s newfound habit of touting his Catholic values and disgust of gay pride parades and “brainwashing” children about homosexuality (he has since apologized for his choice of words, but not the sentiment of that statement).
Again, the site is claiming that it has confirmed the authenticity of the e-mails it says Paladino forwarded to hundreds of people “through several sources and different means,” adding: “They’re real.”
One e-mail forwarded in October 2009 depicts a girl in pigtails enaging in sexual acts that Paladino allegedly forwarded with the message: “Awesome.” He allegedly said the same thing about a video forwarded that same month that showed two women having sex.
I have e-mailed Paladino’s campaign manager Michael Caputo, but have not yet heard back from him.
Paladino has repeatedly apologized to anyone he might have offended with his forwarding of the first set of e-mails, saying back in July:
“I confess to being human and imperfect…To any of the ladies that I’ve offended, I apologize. I say this to the men out there who have never opened a graphic image on the Internet: Don’t vote for me.”
Asked about the e-mails, Paladino’s wife, Cathy, recently told a Buffalo TV station that there “wasn’t any thought to it, it was careless.” adding:
“Crude and tasteless is crude and tasteless. Was it a boys will be boys thing? Probably more that than anything else.”
UPDATE: Caputo e-mailed a response that rejected WNYmedia as “a collection of Buffalo misfits and miscreants who are obsessed with Carl Paladino and pornography.” His statement continues after the jump.
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