obtained before Paladino's outburst to the reporter. Right before the primary, Paladino spent quite a bit of money to upstate media outlets. Upstate media is pretty cheap. NYC media is the most expensive. Cuomo has $20M ready to spend in the last few weeks in downstate media before the election. I don't think Paladino has nearly that amount--reportedly only around $210,000 although he has pledged to spend $10M of his own money on his campaign. However, his money goes a lot further than Cuomo's as he pays himself for campaigning--
"has steered at least $1.9 million in campaign funds to seven of his own companies, paying himself to do everything from buying TV ads to securing campaign office space, the paper reported.
Paladino's campaign manager Michael Caputo told the News that Paladino formed the largest campaign-fund recipient, Ellicott Advertising Co., to save cash after receiving "exorbitant" bids from other firms.
Using Paladino's company reportedly saves the campaign about 30 percent.
"We have been able to achieve incredible savings," Caputo was quoted saying, adding that Paladino's companies have charged the campaign market rate and have not profited from the work.
Under state election law, candidates are allowed to hire their own companies for campaign work as long as they charge "a reasonable fair-market rate," a state election board spokesman told the paper.
Because the companies are privately held, it is difficult to verify the charges."
Read more:
http://www.dnainfo.com/20101005/manhattan/carl-paladino-pays-himself-for-campaign-work-report-says#ixzz11g9ao1YdHe's apparently not too far from Christine O'Donnell, just savvier and wealthier and has better lawyers.
At any rate, he doesn't have a snowflakes chance in hell to win the governorship. NYC has way more people that Western NY and they will not vote for him because he is a racist, sexist asshole who promises to bring a baseball bat to Albany. The last thing we need is a loose cannon governor. We need someone with brains and finesse. In fact, my county, Onondaga which has Syracuse as it's midsized city-- our Republican County Executive Joanie Mahoney has endorsed Andrew Cuomo for governor. Of course, she probably knows Paladino personally and can't stand him. I am pretty sure our county will go for Cuomo. We are not Western NY, but Central NY.
The problem with Cuomo is that he can't get out of his own way. He is a control freak who has problems delegating and mulls over decisions too long.