Carl Paladino continues to duck questions about his relationship with Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.
This morning on WIZR radio (930 AM in Johnstown), Paladino was asked to reconcile his purported conservative views with his $1000 contribution to Schumer on June 30, 2009 and his $4600 contribution to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.
The interview is available here.
The Schumer/Clinton question starts at about 8 minutes and 45 seconds into that mp3 recording.
Paladino offered no explanation for the Clinton contribution. Regarding the Schumer contribution, he attributed it to the Senator bringing low-cost airlines to upstate New York cities. He then claimed that he lost respect for Schumer over “Obamacare.”
The facts do not fit with Paladino’s explanation. Schumer’s involvement in bringing low-cost airlines to upstate cities was complete in 2004, per a Schumer press release.
Paladino did give Schumer $500 in 2003, which fits with the timing involved. But the 2009 contribution was five years later.
As for health care, Schumer has long supported government involvement, and had been vocal about it in the weeks leading up to the Paladino contribution (NY Times article).
Schumer issued a press release on June 25, 2009 supporting the public option.
Five days later, on June 30, 2009, Carl Paladino cut a $1000 check to Schumer’s campaign. Schumer’s public option approach was more extreme than the final legislation, which candidate Paladino compared to the 9/11 attacks.
Libertarian candidate Warren Redlich called on Paladino to come clean about his contributions to the ultra-liberal Clinton and Schumer:
“There are only two possible explanations. Either he gave them money because he was a special interest seeking favors for his businesses. Or he’s really a liberal pretending to be a conservative to get votes. It’s time for Carl Paladino to tell the truth about his long history of supporting liberal politicians.”
Redlich previously detailed Paladino’s liberal contribution history in a YouTube video:
