Campaign attacks prompt Redlich to move

Warren Redlich, the Libertarian Party's 2010 candidate for New York governor, said he is moving to Florida because of fliers that attacked him during last fall's campaign. As a result, he said he won't seek public office again until his children graduate from high school.

Redlich, a Guilderland Town board member, said a flier that circulated upstate the Friday before the election called him a "public danger" who advocated sex with underage girls. He said it drove him out of politics.

"It's not fair to my kids to subject them to that," Redlich said. "Fortunately, they are unaware of what happened, but when they hit middle school, it'll be hard to protect them."

He added: "Maybe Florida state assembly in 2024."

Roger Stone, a self-described Republican dirty trickster who advised candidates Carl Paladino, a Republican, and Kristin Davis, a former madam who ran on the Anti-Prohibition Party ticket, at the time defended the fliers but did not claim ownership of them.

Redlich said he has taken and passed the Florida Bar exam and plans to move his family this summer, likely to Palm Beach County.

Redlich drew strong reviews for his performance at the sole gubernatorial debate, held at Hofstra University, but he fell 1,614 votes short of the 50,000 votes needed to qualify the Libertarian Party for automatic ballot status through 2014.

Redlich follows three-time gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano, the Rochester billionaire who in 2009 changed his official residence to Naples, Fla., in order to save what he said would be $13,000 a day in state income taxes.

Redlich is scheduled to appear at the Libertarian Party's state convention later this month at Lily Flanagan's Pub in Babylon.