Paladino: Cuomo Isn’t Showing Enough Support For Gay Rights

Carl Paladino
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Just days after Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino attacked his Democratic opponent Andrew Cuomo for attending a gay pride parade, his campaign sent out a campaign e-mail that that calls into question Cuomo’s own support for gay rights.

Paladino’s e-mail references other New York Democrats recently speaking out in support of gay rights, but quotes a recent New York Times article that said “the state’s most popular Democrat, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, was all but invisible” when the same sex marriage bill was faltering in Albany.

Earlier this week, Paladino was caught on video saying “that he doesn’t want children ‘to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. It isn’t.'” The next day he criticized Cuomo for taking his children to a gay pride parade where there are “men in Speedos, grinding and doing things to each other.”

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Mario, Pinocchio, And…Grover Cleveland? Top 10 Carl Paladino Campaign Posters]

Here’s the full e-mail, called “Cuomoland: Andrew’s words v. deeds”:

Andrew Cuomo says “Gay Marriage is the civil rights issue of our time” (New York Daily News, Oct 15, 2010)

“As a landmark gay marriage bill hurtled toward an uncertain vote last year, New York’s Democratic leaders scrambled to corral support. Gov. David A. Paterson delivered impassioned speeches, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand headlined a giant rally and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn shuttled back and forth to Albany to lobby lawmakers.

But the state’s most popular Democrat, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, was all but invisible.

He was asked by those pushing for the measure to call three wavering senators. He never spoke with two of them, their aides said, and did not reach another until after the senator had voted — against the bill.

In the end, none of the three senators supported the bill.” (The New York Times July 8, 2010)

The TPM Poll Average shows Cuomo leading Paladino 54.3%-38.2%.

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