Ex-Paladino campaign manager angers Tea Party

Carl Paladino’s former campaign manager was not well received Sunday at the Neptune Diner in Oneonta when he told Tea Party activists that he supports Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s fiscal agenda.

“We weren’t happy, and I’m speaking for most of the people who were in the room,” local Tea Party member Tim Schorer of Hartwick said Monday.

Michael Caputo, who managed Paladino’s recent unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, sent an e-mail Monday to thousands of Tea Party members and others, declaring his support for the Democratic governor’s plans to cap property tax increases at 2 percent a year, cut the state budget and lay off state workers.

“I am a die-hard Republican who fought in the trenches for Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp and Carl Paladino,” Caputo wrote. “I’m as conservative as you can get. And last year I spent most of my time criticizing Andrew Cuomo.

“It’s starting to look like I may end up eating a few of my words.
Cuomo’s fiscal policies, including his plan not to renew a state income tax surcharge on high earners, are worthy of support.”  But before sending out that e-mail, Caputo attended a meeting of conservative activists Sunday, seeking their support.

The meeting was held Sunday afternoon in the banquet room at the Neptune Diner with about 65 people present, Caputo said Monday.
“I was the guest speaker,” he noted. “I think Oneonta was chosen because of its central location.” Caputo declined to characterize the response to his initiative.

Organizer Gary Perry of Waverly said Caputo’s “input was completely off topic and soundly rejected as being inappropriate.”  Schorer, one of a few local people who attended, said he felt betrayed by Caputo. “It made me wonder whose side he was on during the campaign,” he said.

Schorer said a letter from one attendee, Al Belardinelli of Endicott, expresses what most of those gathered at the Neptune were thinking.
“Mike Caputo,”  that letter begins.

“You addressed a group in Oneonta on Sunday, Jan. 30. You read a letter and asked if the group approved of its contents regarding Cuomo’s budget proposal. It was voted that as a group we did not approve of it, and when you asked if you should release the letter to the public, we said no to that, too. ... ”Nonetheless, Caputo released his e-mail, and a story about his conversion, with a mention of the Oneonta meeting, was reported Sunday by The New York Times.

On Monday, Belardinelli said that as he listened to Caputo in Oneonta, “I was outraged.” Cuomo’s plan to cap annual property tax increases at 2 percent implies that there will be property tax increases, which is not a plan that conservatives should endorse, he said.

Otsego County Rep. Betty Anne Schwerd (R-Burlington), who attended the session, said she believes in working across party lines, but now is too early to get behind Cuomo.

“Some of what he is saying sounds good, but I want to see what he does,” she said.

Schwerd said most of those at the meeting, called by Unite New York, were disappointed in Caputo’s letter and not pleased that the meeting and letter became public. 

“People were ticked off,” she said.

However, the meeting with representatives of small groups from around the state was interesting, she said, and may portend the building of a citizens coalition.