Paladino's message: You gotta disbelieve the polls

OSWEGO, N.Y. - Don't believe the hype.

That was Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino's message to his base as he sprinted through upstate yesterday, urging voters to ignore polls showing him losing to Democrat Andrew Cuomo by double digits.

"The polls were wrong in the primary by 27 points," Paladino told a group of 40 supporters at the Jefferson County GOP headquarters in Watertown, north of Syracuse. "The polls can't judge the turnout, and we're trying to get everybody out. . . . That's the key to this."

Visiting three upstate communities that supported him overwhelmingly in the Sept. 14 primary, Paladino said he was trying to recapture some of the magic that propelled his 24-point victory over Rick Lazio, a former congressman from Brightwaters. After Saturday's stops in Watertown, Oswego and Syracuse, Paladino Sunday plans to head south for a rally in Westchester, followed by a visit to Old Bethpage Village at 1 p.m. - both suburban battlegrounds.

"The whole election is going to turn on who comes out to vote," said Stanley B. Klein, a politics professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and a Suffolk GOP committeeman.

Paladino stepped up attacks on Cuomo, calling him "a mean-spirited, bad person" in front of about 40 people watching college football at a sports bar here. Later, Paladino told reporters the attacks were fair because Cuomo had tried to paint Paladino's campaign as "angry."

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto shot back: "The Carl Paladino campaign should by now be known to all New Yorkers as 'the rantings of a mad man.' "

Paladino also is blasting Cuomo on the airwaves with a television commercial airing statewide, along with a radio and mailing effort in every region of the state.

Meanwhile, upstate Republicans and tea party members were knocking on doors in a drizzling rain for him yesterday in Watertown.

Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo said get-out-the-vote efforts were targeting Western New York most aggressively, around Paladino's hometown of Buffalo.

"Two things are key," Caputo said. "Beating all voter enthusiasm and upstate turnout expectations."

Paladino has hewed to a grueling schedule in recent days, holding multiple rallies in cities and villages hours apart. He looked tired and spoke laboriously at the morning event in Watertown Saturday.

"We're everywhere," he said wearily later. "It's tiring, especially the traveling."

But crowds have been relatively small. No more than 40 people greeted him at Saturday's hastily arranged rallies.

Those supporters, though, were fervent. "I've been waiting to vote for him all year. I can't wait," said Joe Parker, 57, a small-business owner from Watertown carrying an orange and black Paladino placard.