Churchill: A Carl Paladino win would be disastrous

ALBANY — Does New York need its very own Marjorie Taylor Greene? Who says yes? Anybody?

I didn’t think so. Unfortunately, though, New York might just get a version of the wing-nut member of Congress in the form of Carl Paladino.

Remember him? Of course you do. How could anyone forget crazy Carl, who was clobbered by Andrew Cuomo in the 2010 governor’s race?

Well, he’s back and irresponsible as ever.

Just days after Paladino entered the 23rd Congressional District race earlier this month, voters were hearing about his Facebook post and email blast claiming “false flag” government involvement in the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Paladino at first claimed he didn’t put the post authored by somebody else on his page, before quickly admitting he had.

“Yes, I did it,” the Republican told the Buffalo News. “I just didn’t remember the fact that I published it.”

OK, Carl, whatever you say. Nice to see you haven’t changed.

That controversy proved a prelude to the next when the liberal group Media Matters published a 2021 radio interview in which Paladino said what America needs is a strong leader like … oh please no … Adolf Hitler.

“I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today,” he said. “We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it.”

A doer? Oh, yes. Hitler got things done all right, including genocide and a totalitarian takeover of much of Europe. Quite an inspiration, that Hitler.

Paladino, who is 75, subsequently apologized and explained that he wasn’t talking about all the bad stuff, of course. He just meant that Hitler “was a very popular person” with the “ability to move an entire population.”

How’s that for a head slapper?

And so, it’s more obvious than ever that Paladino has no more business in Congress than Greene, a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire who infamously blamed the 2018 California wildfires on space lasers controlled by a corporate cabal. As the National Review’s Kevin Williamson put it, Greene is “the sort of self-serving malicious dunce who should be kept as far away from political power as possible.”

Paladino is much the same. If the Buffalo-based developer were to win the upcoming Republican primary, he would be an attention-sucking and message-destroying embarrassment to the state’s GOP, putting winnable races all across the state, including the governor’s race, at risk for the party.

If Paladino were to win the general election in the red-leaning district, he’d be an embarrassment for all of New York. He’d be a constant distraction. The man who once said Michelle Obama “should return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe” would be a fountain of stupidity and ignorance.

“Carl Paladino is a racist,” said Keith Wofford, a Black Republican who four years ago ran for attorney general. “Not ‘racially insensitive’; not ‘unsophisticated’; a straight-up, old-school racist. And I know this from my personal experience in 2018, carrying the party’s banner in New York state.”

Thankfully, Paladino has serious primary competition in the newly drawn 23rd, which includes some Buffalo suburbs and extends eastward along the Pennsylvania border to Chemung County. New York Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy has entered the race, promising a “candidacy free of distraction” instead of Paladino’s “circus sideshow.”

But our own Elise Stefanik, it turns out, prefers the circus — so much so that she’s buying ringside seats. The North Country Republican has endorsed Paladino and is throwing her not inconsiderable power behind his candidacy.

Why? Your guess is as good or better than mine.

It seemingly makes little sense that Stefanik would want Paladino on the ballot in the fall, given the headaches he will cause every New York Republican. It makes less sense that she’d want him alongside her in New York’s congressional delegation.

There does, however, seem to be some animosity between Stefanik and Langworthy, with the latter telling the New York Post that Stefanik has “a vendetta” against him because he rejected her gubernatorial ambitions by preferring U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin.

Au contraire, says Stefanik, who through spokesperson Alex deGrasse said she “would never have lowered herself to ask Nick Langworthy for permission.”

“If Elise wanted to run for governor, she would have run for governor,” deGrasse added.

You better believe that New York’s Democrats, no fans of Langworthy or Stefanik, have the popcorn buttered and are pulling up comfy chairs to watch this fight. For Republicans, it promises to be disastrous. For Democrats, it promises to be entertaining.

But schadenfreude aside, no New Yorker should want Paladino to succeed, even in the primary. He’s destructive and mean. He’s ignorant and childish. In this ugly political moment, Carl Paladino chatting with Marjorie Taylor Greene in the halls of Congress is the last thing we need.

cchurchill@timesunion.com ■ 518-454-5442 ■ @chris_churchill