Political insider still “in” in New York governor’s race
New York voters are plenty angry. But apparently they’re not so comfortable with “scary-angry” and that could be costing Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino some support, The New York Times reports.
According to a New York Times poll released on the eve of their Monday night debate, Democrat Andrew Cuomo has opened a big lead over Paladino, 59 percent to 24 percent.
Fifty-nine percent of voters said Paladino did not have the right temperament and personality to be a good governor. Fifty-five percent said the real estate developer who’s never held public office did not have the right kind of experience.
“We’re all upset in New York State with the way it’s been run, but I don’t think it’s a good thing for a candidate to be that angry. He’s scary-angry, actually,” Michelle Sullivan, an independent, told the Times in a followup interview.
Cuomo, the New York attorney general and son of former Democratic governor Mario Cuomo, has been considered a strong favorite ahead of the Nov. 2 election in the heavily Democratic state.
A month ago Paladino, a Tea Party-backed candidate, had pulled to within six percentage points of his Democratic opponent in a Quinnipiac University poll.
His standing in the new poll of 1,139 people surveyed Oct. 10-15, may have been affected by Paladino’s recent public relations, The New York Times said.
NY governor candidate Paladino says he only opposes gay marriage (and doesn’t like the parades)
Carl Paladino, the Tea Party backed Republican candidate running for New York governor, says he is not against homosexuals, only gay marriage and taking children to gay pride parades.
News reports quoted Paladino, in remarks to Orthodox Jewish leaders in Brooklyn on Sunday, saying: “I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t.”
The Buffalo businessman was on all the morning talk shows today responding to criticism over those comments. The campaign of his opponent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, said the remarks displayed “a stunning homophobia and glaring disregard for basic equality.”
Today the message from Paladino was that he is not anti-gay, he has a gay nephew, but he is opposed to gay marriage.
“I wanted to clearly distinguish that my feelings about homosexuality were no different that those of the Catholic Church. I’m a Catholic,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show. “I only have one problem with homosexuality and that’s the desire to be married.”
On NBC’s “Today” show he criticized Cuomo for taking his daughters to a gay pride parade. “I don’t think it is proper for them to go there and watch a couple of grown men grind against each other. I don’t think that’s proper. I think it’s disgusting.”
As for the public opinion polls that show him trailing Cuomo — Real Clear Politics average has Cuomo up by 18.8 points — Paladino says: “I don’t listen to the polls. The poll that I will listen to is on November 2nd.”
Funny how people always bring up the fact that a few Catholic priests did something wrong when they don’t have a better argument.
I also don’t know why it’s so wrong for him to express his beliefs. How come the tiny fraction of the population that believes in homosexuality are the ones who get to make all the noise?
The First Draft: Will Giuliani try for the U.S. Senate?
He probably won’t run for New York governor but might for the U.S. Senate … or will he? That’s the speculation swirling around Rudy Giuliani, the Republican former New York City mayor who walked tall after the Sept. 11 attacks and ran for U.S. president in 2008. A spokeswoman says the 65-year-old former federal prosecutor has made no decisions. But the New York Daily News, the New York Times and the New York Post all report that Giuliani has decided not to run for New York governor in 2010. Analysts think he could defeat Democratic incumbent Governor David Paterson without much fuss. But overcoming a possible challenge from New York’s Democratic attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, could be have been difficult. Cuomo has not announced his candidacy. The Daily News reports that Giuliani is strongly considering a Senate run against Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s term. Clinton, who lost in last year’s Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, is now U.S. secretary of state.
The Daily News cites poll numbers showing Giuliani losing to Cuomo 53 percent to 43 percent in a race for governor, but beating Gillibrand 54 percent to 40 percent for the Senate.
But the Senate speculation may not last long.
The New York Post quotes people close to Giuliani as saying a run for the Senate is unlikely.
And even the Daily News seems to be hedging its bets with a story saying Giuliani doesn’t need to run for the Senate because he already has plenty of money and influence and a private life that’s working out just fine. Giuliani ran for the Senate in a 2000 campaign that pitted him against Clinton. But events and declining poll numbers were against him and he withdrew after a quick succession of revelations: he had prostate cancer, he had a girlfriend, and he was separating from his second wife. Giuliani has since beaten cancer, divorced his second wife, Donna Hanover, and married his former girlfriend, Judith Nathan.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Giuliani)
Guiliano is a clown, but he has some leadership ability. Right now there is a vacuum in leadership at the White House and it’s name is Obama. When you turn the switch to foreign affairs–it sucks, when you turn the switch to domestic affairs–it blows
