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2010 Gov Race
Paladino Gets Personal
Sep 29th - 7:09 pm
GOP/Conservative gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino did not take kindly reports about the spotty personal histories of his campaign staffers and the coverage of the daughter he fathered outside his marriage, accusing the Democrats who have sought to capitalize on these stories of playing dirty.
Not surprisingly, Paladino blamed his Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo, for the negative coverage.
“Oh boy, how nonsensical is that? He’s reached down to the bottom of the barrel,” Paladino said of Cuomo, whose LG running mate, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy, issued a press release questioning his selection of campaign aides. (State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs went one step further and called for the four to be fired).
“Obviously his clip is empty,” Paladino continued. “He doesn’t have much more to go on, so he’s chasing around a bunch of his campaign workers. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all. He’s welcome to take his shots at me if he wants, but he better stay away from my family, and I think it’s disgraceful he has to go chase campaign workers and put them on the front page of the New York Times.”
Also, Paladino tried to turn the tables on Cuomo during an interview with POLITICO, in which he said:
“Has anybody asked Andrew Cuomo about his paramours? When he was married – or asked him why his wife left him or threw him out of the house? Has anybody ever done that? What are they doing intruding on my life?”
(Odd. I thought family was off-limits. Perhaps only current members of the family, not exes. Those, it appears, are fair game).
Kauffmann For Cuomo
Sep 29th - 4:12 pm
Peter Kauffmann, the former communications director for Gov. David Paterson who resigned in the wake of the Yankees tickets scandal, has taken a leave of absence from his nonprofit post to work as a senior advisor to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign.
He’ll be joining another former Paterson spokesperson who quit her job due to the outgoing governor’s ethics troubes: Marissa Shorenstein.
A source forwarded me the following e-mail, which was sent this afternoon to staffers at the College Board, where Kauffmann went to work as vice president for communications in April. The note is signed by Gaston Caperton, a former two-term governor of West Virginia who is president of the College Board.
“I want to share with you the news that Peter Kauffmann will be taking a one-month leave of absence from the College Board. Peter has been asked to serve as Senior Advisor on Andrew Cuomo’s campaign for governor of New York.”
“This is a tremendous opportunity, and while we will miss Peter during his time away, I know you will all join me in wishing him well.”
“Over the past several months, we have started to build strong momentum in raising the profile of the College Board in the media and I am confident we will continue on that path over the next month and when Peter returns after Election Day in November.”
I have a call in to Kauffmann, who has so far not gotten back to me.
Takes One To Know One?
Sep 29th - 3:15 pm
The Paladino campaign is firing back at NARAL Pro-Choice NY and its endorsed gubernatorial candidate, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, insisting the AG’s position on abortion rights is just as “extreme” as they insist the Buffalo businessman’s thoughts on the subject.
According to Paladino’s campaign manager Michael Caputo, his candidate’s views on abortion are born of religious conviction and attacking him is no more of an attempt to distract voters from the real debate about cleaning up Albany.
I’m not quite certain how else to prepare you for this statement, and so I’m just go to leave it here.
“The NARAL ad is just more ridiculous exaggeration from another Cuomo surrogate group sent to do the bidding of the Albany ruling class. Carl’s position on abortion is exactly the position of the millions of members of the Roman Catholic Church, nothing more, and he’ll uphold the law of the land.”
“Andrew Cuomo supports partial birth abortion, a heinous procedure in which a live fetus is pulled from the womb and stabbed to death – we believe that is the extremist position.”
“Attacking Carl’s personal religious views on abortion is an attempt to distract voters from the corruption of Albany. Carl has never said changing New York’s existing abortion laws are on his agenda for reform. He is focused on jobs, taxes, spending and the economy.”
“NARAL is just helping their progressive candidate for Governor distract New York voters from the facts in this terrible recession: Cuomo will raise taxes, increase spending and continue the onerous regulations that have been killing businesses and jobs in New York ever since his daddy was governor.”
Sound Familiar?
Sep 29th - 2:01 pm
A CapTon viewer was struck by Andrew Cuomo’s recitation last night of all the corruption-busting he’s done as the state’s chief law enforcement official and his plan to tell New Yorkers: “You know what I’ve done as attorney general, imagine what I’d do as governor.”
As it turns out, another AG-turned-gubernatorial candidate used a similar catchphrase back in 2006.
Yup. You guessed it, Eliot Spitzer (who, by the way, Cuomo included in his list of scalps, citing the Troopergate report and adding: “To the extent that he was displeased, I did my job.”)
Spitzer’s second TV ad in the 2006 governor’s race featured a collection of headlines touting his AG successes and then this tagline: “Now just imagine what he’d do…as your governor.”
Conservative Leader Resigns In Protest To Paladino
Sep 29th - 1:03 pm
GOP gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino is starting down a vote at today’s state Conservative Party convention outside Albany, and the get-together hasn’t even started yet.
Monroe County Conservative Chairman Tom Cook told YNN’s Wendy Mills yesterday that not only won’t support giving the Buffalo businessman Row D now that Rick Lazio has dropped off the line, but also is resigning his state committee post in protest of the party’s all-but certain endorsement of him.
“I just couldn’t support him because I have seen the Website, I’ve seen the e-mails, and I am not a prude, but I am just not into that kind of conduct,” Cook said.
“…Paladino on its face, he is a good conservative. Pro-life, 2nd Amendment, lower taxes, less government. If that was all it was, that would be fine. But when he engages in behavior that is real bad, I just thought we shouldn’t support him.”
“…If you look at his record, he was a Democrat until 2005. He gave money to (Eric) Massa, (Louise) Slaughter, (John) Kerry, (Chuck) Schumer, (Eliot) Spitzer. Then he became a born-again Christian and he is all of a sudden esposing Christian beliefs.”
“And he is anti-Albany, which is easy to do. But that is not enough. You can’t be a philosophical Conservative and have personal conduct which is repugnant.”
Duffy Attacks Paladino (Updated)
Sep 29th - 12:25 pm
Andrew Cuomo’s hand-picked LG running mate, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy, has embraced the traditional attack-dog role of a No. 2, blasing the Paladino campaign for employing four top aides with checkered pasts.
“Campaigns show the people of the State how we would govern,” said Duffy. “Now more than ever, the people of this State need to have their faith and confidence in Government restored.”
“By surrounding himself with people who have run afoul of the law and displayed questionable ethics, Mr. Paladino has once again shown voters that he lacks the judgment to be Governor.”
Both the Times and the DN ran stories today about the histories of Paladino aides. Two of them – GOP consultant John Haggerty, who was indicted in connection with the Manhattan DA’s ongoing Independence Party/Mayor Bloomberg probe, and former Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples, who has been accused of pay-to-play in connection with the Conservative Party – have been the subject of past media reports.
In today’s stories, Buffalo resident and Tea Partier Rus Thompson got the worst of it (he was the sole focus of the DN story) for his drunk driving conviction under another name while living in Arizona. Apparently, he didn’t take too well to being questioned by the Times’ Michael Barbaro about his run-ins with the law:
Choice Offensive
Sep 29th - 12:06 pm
As part of what seems to be a coordinated attack strategy against Carl Paladino and his extremely conservative position on abortion rights, NARAL Pro-Choice New York is poised to endorse AG Andrew Cuomo for governor later today, according to sources inside the campaign.
This comes on the same day the group released its first television ad of this campaign season, which accused Paladino of wanting to see abortion criminalized.
In the wake of his landslide GOP primary win, Paladino told CNN he opposes abortion even in the instance of incest or rape.
He later backed off those comments a little, by saying those were his personal beliefs, and if elected governor he’d respect the beliefs of the people.
On the other hand, he did tell the DN that he would end Medicaid funding for abortion and eliminate the pro-abortion aspects of family planning services. (This isn’t something he could accomplish single-handedly, it should be noted; the idea that the Democrat-dominated Legislature would go along with that is pretty far-fetched).
This is, of course, all part of Cuomo’s renewed focus on the Democratic base. Choice is an issue that, unsurprisingly, polls very high among women, who tend to vote in higher numbers than men.
‘I Know E-mails’
Sep 29th - 9:09 am
Several viewers and readers have written in to note that the whole Carl Paladino e-mail scandal raises an interesting question: What about Andrew Cuomo’s on-line communication? Has the Democratic gubernatorial candidate ever sent anything inappropriate out into the ether?
I asked him that question – or tried to – on CapTon last night.
“These were offensive at a minimum right?” Cuomo said of the racist, sexist and pornographic e-mails forwarded by the Buffalo businessman.
“…If you’re in a political campaign, if you send out e-mails to people with these kinds of images don’t be surprised if someone asks you to answer for them, you know? I think that’s every fair indeed. Now the e-mails you send me, don’t worry about. Nobody will ever see those….I know e-mails, Liz, I specialize in e-mails. I do it for a living.”
For the record, as I said last night, I have never sent the AG an e-mail, which would be difficult to do since I don’t have his personal e-mail address.
That “I specialize in e-mails” comment refers, I believe, to the role cyber communications have played in any number of AG investigations. Of course, Eliot Spitzer knew that, too, and it didn’t stop him from being quite prolific in his e-mail communications, which has come back to bite him.
Cuomo: Not My Dad’s Fault
Sep 29th - 8:53 am
AG Andrew Cuomo told me last night that there is “plenty of blame to go around” for the current mess in Albany, and then rattled off a list of the usual suspects: Lobbyists, special interests, legislative leaders and governors.
Governors?
But wait, wasn’t Cuomo’s father, Mario, a governor? Yes. He served three terms after being elected in 1982 and was denied a fourth by a then little-known Republican state senator named George Pataki.
According to Andrew Cuomo, the trouble with Albany started after his father left office “a long, long time ago.”
“Mario Cuomo was a governor when government was a different institution, Liz,” the AG said. “The people who were in government with Mario Cuomo wouldn’t recognize what is happening in Albany now. This is different thing. I don’t recognize it The lack of integrity. The corruption.”
Incidentally, Cuomo declined to answer my question about whether he would seek to take out Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver if and when he’s elected governor, at first quipping: “By take him out do you mean for lunch or coffee, is that what you’re referring to?”
He then insisted he can work with Silver – with anyone, really, even reporters – but never got around to saying whether or not he would try to oust Silver, who is the longest-serving legislative leader at the Capitol right now.
NARAL On ‘What Paladino Wants’
Sep 29th - 8:27 am
NARAL Pro-Choice NY’s first TV ad of this election cycle targets GOP gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino for his staunch opposition to abortion rights, even in the case of rape or incest – an unusually far-right position for even the most conservative candidates in this Democrat-dominated state.
The ad portrays women getting their mug shots taken as a female announcer says: “If Carl Paladino had his way, abortion would be a crime and women would be treated like criminals. This is what Carl Paladino wants. Do you?”
Even if he is elected governor, Paladino won’t be able to single-handedly ban a woman’s ability to get an abortion in New York. (A little something known as Roe v. Wade would prevent that). Although he would have influence over policy on this hot-button issue.
“Carl Paladino couldn’t be more extreme when it comes to abortion. His comments to the press so far have been as clear as day,” said NARAL’s Mary Alice Carr.
“He’s said he’s as anti-choice ‘about as much as any person could possibly be,’ He said no to abortion even if a woman has been raped, no to abortion for victims of incest. If these are Carl Paladino’s positions on abortion, then he certainly doesn’t support Roe v. Wade and would be perfectly satisfied if abortion were made illegal.”
“Carl Paladino is the most vehemently anti-choice gubernatorial candidate New York has ever seen. He needs to be held accountable for the potential outcome of his positions. It is our duty to ensure the public understands the dire consequences of his outrageously out-of-touch position on a woman’s right to choose.”
The ad, which was included in a round-up by negative campaign spots in this morning’s Times, will start running this week in New York City and the Albany and Buffalo regions during the morning news shows and afternoon programming that reaches the critical demographic of women aged 18-64.
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