Gov Race: This time, Paladino dodges reporters in Williamsburg

Carl Paladino returned this afternoon to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, scene of his catastrophic "brainwashed" speech two weeks ago today, but this time the Buffalo developer did not allow reporters into his closed-door meetings with the Orthodox.

It's not clear why today's event was private or who requested it be that way, but Paladino met for about 40 minutes with about a dozen Orthodox Jewish men in a building on Harrison Avenue. When he emerged, Paladino ignored reporters questions, saying only "no media right now, we have a meeting to go to." He declined to say where the meeting was, but photos emerged on Twitter of him at a Satmar shul on Hooper Street.

Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo said only that there would be "no media circus today."

Isaac Abraham, a housing advocate and one-time City Council candidate who was in the meeting, said Paladino used the gathering as a way to get beyond the anti-gay rhetoric that dominated his previous encounter with Orthodox rabbis.

"His last visit here he, his campaign and Williamsburg were literally sabotaged by a person who came in here and figured he's going to sit down 10 people and have his entire agenda be issues below the belt," Abraham said, referring to Rabbi Yehuda Levin, who wrote Paladino's incendiary remarks two weeks ago.

Levin later renounced Paladino after he apologized for the anti-gay remarks.

Paladino did not touch on gay marriage, Abraham said. He said questions posed to Paladino touched on affordable housing, education and crime issues. "This community is still very concerned about issues above the belt and he never had a chance to explain it before," Abraham said.

Isac Weinberger, an Orthodox political gadfly, said he asked Paladino about how he would reform the state pension system so that politicians convicted of crimes would be stripped of their pensions. Paladino, Weinberger said, responded by saying, "Don't you think there is a deal between (convicted former Comptroller) Alan Hevesi and Cuomo?"

A Cuomo official reminded that Cuomo's ethics proposal would strip pensions from politicians convicted of crimes.

Nonetheless, Weinberger said he plans to vote for Cuomo. Abraham said he's yet to decide.