Paladino wants Lazio out

Not that there were many doubts, but Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino said, for sure, this morning, that he’ll finance his own campaign to take away new GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio’s spot on the GOP line:

NEW YORK (AP) _ Republican Carl Paladino is mounting a
multimillion dollar campaign to oust Rick Lazio as the GOP’s
designee to run for governor in New York.
The Buffalo developer says he’ll use $10 million of his own
money in an effort to collect enough petition signatures to force a costly Sept. 14 primary, a contest Lazio’s campaign can’t easily
afford.
Paladino will use statewide tours and a continuing advertising
campaign to argue that Lazio is unqualified for the job, and that
Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo is part of a corrupt Albany crowd.
Lazio decisively beat Paladino at the GOP convention Wednesday,
denying him even the 25 percent of delegates needed to
automatically force a primary.
Lazio, a former congressman from Long Island, had no immediate
comment Thursday.

There’s lots more on Liz Benjamin’s State of Politics blog.