Round 1: Paladino throws jabs, Cuomo steps aside

So what if former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch and former State Comptroller F. Carl McCall say he's unfit to serve as New York's governor, Carl Paladino says?

"Take a look at the nuts that are making those statements - the Three Stooges!" the Republican nominee for governor told Newsday Friday.

That's the approach that Paladino is banking on to draw his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, into a public debate. But sparring with Cuomo surrogates so far has been the only option for the Republican outsider because New York's front-runner for governor is taking his time before taking any direct shots of his own - at least while a volatile electorate has yet to take the measure of his pugnacious new adversary, Democratic sources say.

"I don't know Mr. Paladino, and I don't think my characterization is all that relevant or appropriate," Cuomo said demurely to reporters on Thursday, even as Democratic partisans were lobbing one salvo after another.

Cuomo said he was "open to debating and the campaigns are talking about it."

The general election campaign may be less than a week old, but the terms of engagement already are evident: for Paladino, straight ahead, and damn the torpedoes. And for Cuomo, for now, wait and see while others do the dirty work.

On primary night Tuesday, Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs promised voters a "rude awakening" about the GOP's choice. The next morning, D'Amato, Koch and McCall in a joint statement decried racially offensive e-mails forwarded in the past by Paladino, adding that he embodies the "very worst of Albany's pay-to-play culture."

Gov. David A. Paterson called him "unfit for office," and a group of black leaders asked the GOP to abandon Paladino if he didn't conduct a "civil campaign."

But Republicans say Paladino's upset victory over former Rep. Rick Lazio and high GOP turnout show civility is a low priority for the voters in this tea party year. Democrats underestimate the power of the political energy Paladino's candidacy has unleashed, they say.

"Cuomo's 'Rose Garden' strategy just won't work with a candidate like Carl," state GOP spokesman Alex Carey said Friday. "What New Yorkers are really angry at is not off-color remarks or behavior, but at the officials who are currently in power who have been overspending."

"It's intensifying like a tsunami, and I don't see it letting up before Election Day," agreed Monroe County GOP chairman William Reilich.

Roger Stone's strategy

For Paladino, advised by Roger Stone, the plan for victory has been unambiguous. Typical was a Friday e-mail depicting a naked, filthy attorney general in the shower, under the headline "Clean up Albany? Start with Cuomo."

These are jugular shots that are deceptively difficult to respond to, believes Democratic consultant George Arzt.

"The 'mad as hell' campaign has a resonance among a lot of people. You can't take for granted that this is some nutcase. People thought the same thing with [professional wrestler] Jesse Ventura, and Jesse Ventura got elected" governor of Minnesota, Arzt said. "It's sheer anger the candidates now have to deal with."

"Paladino will run a rugged campaign, and Andrew Cuomo has a temper," said Quinnipiac University pollster Maurice Carroll. "All Cuomo is going to have to worry about is continuing what he's done very successfully, which is portray himself as a grown-up guy who's ready for the job."

A 'real dilemma'

But Paladino's rough style poses a "real dilemma for down-ballot Republicans," said Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff. This week the GOP's candidates for comptroller, Harry Wilson, and attorney general, Dan Donovan, declined to endorse Paladino. Paladino, said Miringoff, "will claim outsider status, but the question is whether he is also outside the range of acceptability." That question will be answered very quickly, Miringoff believes.

Meanwhile, there are other reasons for Cuomo to wait before taking his first shot, insiders say. Lazio remains the Conservatives' choice - but party leaders may yet smooth his exit from the race. And any day now, Paladino might say something so outlandish that Cuomo will deem it unwise even to occupy the same stage with him.

At a forum Thursday, former GOP Gov. George Pataki said he expected to endorse Paladino as long as he laid out a lower-tax, smaller-government platform.

When Pataki was told that Paladino had just called him a "degenerate idiot" in the Daily News that morning, he reconsidered.

Paladino, said Pataki, will need to show he can represent the state in a way that's "appropriate."