Gov. Cuomo’s campaign operatives are being accused of dirty tricks for allegedly sponsoring a biased “push poll’’ to convince voters that Rob Astorino, Cuomo’s Republican opponent, holds politically unacceptable views.
Astorino spokeswoman Jessica Proud said push-poll calls claiming to be from a legitimate polling firm but actually meant to plant false information to “push’’ voters away from Astorino were received last week by Republican voters in Suffolk County.
Proud told The Post that a recipient of the call in Smithtown transcribed some of the questions and gave them to the Astorino campaign.
“Let me give you a few statements about Rob Astorino and tell me if you’re more likely to vote for him, less likely or there’s no change,’’ the caller began, according to a copy of the transcription.
“Rob Astorino wants to repeal Gov. Cuomo’s gun law, making it easier for criminals to get illegal guns. Rob Astorino opposes a woman’s right to choose. As county executive, Astorino saw taxes climb over 24 percent, the highest in the nation’’
Proud said that the “so-called poll is a type of dirty trick, the lowest form of political tactic, and these supposed questions are filled with lies.”
“Cuomo’s campaign is seeing what we’re seeing, that there’s no passion for Cuomo anywhere you go. So they’re trying to suppress our support among Republicans,’’ Proud said.
While Astorino opposes Cuomo’s “Safe Act’’ restrictions on gun ownership, he also opposes criminals having guns. And while he’s personally anti-abortion, he says he recognizes that legalized abortion is the law and wouldn’t seek to change it.
As far as Westchester’s taxes, Astorino insists he has cut, not raised, them.
A Cuomo campaign spokesman denied any involvement in a push poll, insisting, “Those types of Nixonian dirty tricks are not something Democrats in New York would engage in.’’
He also noted that, tactically, it was far too early to use such a push poll as a campaign tactic, since “a push poll is not something that happens on July 19, months before Election Day.’’
Former Gov. and current state Democratic Chairman David Paterson didn’t hide his unhappiness last week over the decision by Cuomo’s campaign operatives to quote him as attacking and insulting Astorino with words he never uttered.
Paterson said on Albany’s Talk 1300-AM that he never called Astorino an “extreme conservative’’ and that he would never refer to him as “poor little Robbie,’’ as press releases issued under the name of Peter Kauffmann, a longtime Democratic operative who served as Paterson’s communications director when Paterson was governor, had claimed. Kauffmann refused to comment.
Ironically, Kauffmann resigned in protest from Paterson’s scandal-scarred administration in March 2010, claiming, “Integrity and commitment to public service are values I take seriously.’’
Cuomo’s use of his public office and, as revealed last week, some $161 million in public funds for nationally broadcast “feel-good’’ TV commercials to enhance his re-election prospects are widely recognized — but now state commissioners have been ordered to join the effort as well.
A prominent Westchester lawyer alerted The Post to a recent letter sent by state Labor Commissioner Peter Rivera, a former Bronx assemblyman, to business owners across the state who pay the Unemployment Insurance Interest Assessment on federal loans that help cover the cost of unemployment claims.
The 1¹/₂-page letter, which the lawyer called “a flagrant abuse of taxpayer money,’’ reads like a Cuomo campaign flier.
“When Gov. Cuomo came into office in 2011, the NYS unemployment rate was 8.2 percent.” it says. “In just three years, the unemployment rate has decreased by more than 18 percent to the state’s lowest rate since Dec. 2008.
“The Governor’s economic development policies have played a large role in putting New Yorkers back to work by helping to create over 440,400 jobs — the second most net new private sectors [sic] jobs in the nation since the recessions.’’
Economic experts have questioned those job-creation claims and cited figures showing that New York has, in fact, trailed the nation in the pace of its economic recovery — but somehow, that didn’t get mentioned in the letter.