Gov. Cuomo is expected to unleash a $10 million package of TV attack ads designed to “define’’ his newly announced Republican challenger, Rob Astorino, as a “right-wing nut,” Democratic and Republican insiders say.
Cuomo’s campaign will be seeking to fill an information vacuum about Astorino, the Westchester County executive who recent polls have shown is hardly known by the voters.
The negative commercials will be primarily aimed at convincing independent and moderate voters, especially women, that Astorino holds what Cuomo has already branded as “extreme conservative’’ views on abortion, gay marriage and gun-ownership rights.
“The ads are already in the pipeline. They’re reviewing themes and preliminary scripts. They want to define Astorino in a negative way as quickly as possible,’’ said a top Democratic insider.
Longtime Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said he expected Cuomo to unleash a series of costly harsh attacks — with a price tag of “about $10 million.”
“The best way to deal with Rob Astorino is to bury him as a right- wing nut out of the mainstream politician who cannot compete in any way with the Cuomo record,’’ said Sheinkopf.
Astorino spokeswoman Jessica Proud said, “We’ve been hearing it’s going to be an $8 [million] to $10 million buy against us.”
“It’s tricky, because Cuomo is saying out of one side of his mouth that he doesn’t know that Rob is going to be the candidate against him, and at the same time spending $10 million on air attacking us,’’ continued Proud, referring to Cuomo’s suggestion last week that Donald Trump, who says he’s considering entering the gubernatorial race, could be the GOP nominee.
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Last week’s scathing Manhattan federal court ruling that environmental activists used “corrupt means’’ that included bribery, fraud and extortion to win an $18 billion judgment against Chevron Corp. for alleged pollution in Ecuador’s Amazon region has implications for Cuomo, his ex-wife, Kerry Kennedy, his top aide, Howard Glaser, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
The New York Times reported in 2011 that Cuomo, as New York’s attorney general two years earlier, used his office to threaten legal action against Chevron as Karen Hinton, Glaser’s lobbyist wife, was being paid $10,000 a month by the activist group suing Chevron.
The Post reported in 2012 that Kerry Kennedy, the self-styled human-rights activist who had repeatedly championed the anti-Chevron group through writings and public appearances, had a secret stake in the legal case that would bring her an incredible $40 million if the claim against Chevron was upheld.
Meanwhile, DiNapoli, a highly partisan Democrat with close ties to environmental activists and an investor in Chevron through the massive state pension fund, had repeatedly urged the oil company to “settle’’ the lawsuit by paying off the activists, despite Chevron’s insistence that it had not broken the law.
DiNapoli’s conduct prompted Chevron to file an unprecedented charge of unethical and dishonest conduct against him with the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
DiNapoli spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman called district court Judge Lewis Kaplan’s ruling “very troubling” and said, “We, along with other shareholders, are monitoring developments and the appeal,’’ although no appeal has yet been filed.