86 Facts About Carl Paladino

Carl Pasquale Paladino was born on August 24,1946 and is an American businessman and political activist.

Carl Paladino's candidacy was supported by the Tea Party movement and by residents of his native Western New York.

Carl Paladino was elected to the South Buffalo seat on the Buffalo School Board in 2013, and was re-elected in 2016.

In December 2016, the board condemned racist remarks that Carl Paladino had made about President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama and demanded that he resign.

Carl Paladino was a candidate for the US House of Representatives for New York's 23rd District in 2022 but narrowly lost in the Republican primary to Nick Langworthy.

Carl Paladino's father participated in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Carl Paladino spent three months on active duty in the United States Army and over ten years in the reserve, discharged in 1981 at the rank of captain.

Carl Paladino later was part of the consortium that acquired the Fort Erie Race Track in Canada in August 2014.

Carl Paladino is close friends with pizzeria owner Joseph Todaro Jr.

Carl Paladino registered with the Democratic Party in 1974 and remained with it until 2005.

Carl Paladino helped lead a campaign to remove the toll barriers on Interstate 190 in the mid-2000s.

In 2009, Carl Paladino got involved in the campaign on behalf of South Buffalo councilman Michael Kearns in Buffalo's Democratic primary mayoral election, campaigning against incumbent Byron Brown.

Carl Paladino endorsed Kearns in the New York State Assembly race in 2012 to replace Buffalo city comptroller Mark J F Schroeder.

Carl Paladino ran as a pugnacious political outsider with the support of the Tea Party movement.

Carl Paladino pledged himself to one term in office and, like fellow businessmen-turned-politicians Chris Collins and Michael Bloomberg, would forgo collecting his salary if elected.

Carl Paladino stated that he would then endorse his lieutenant governor for the 2014 gubernatorial election.

Carl Paladino acknowledged some of them were indeed circulated by him among a circle of friends, mostly in the construction industry.

Carl Paladino acknowledged that some of the e-mails were authentic, but denied that he originated any of them, saying that he was nevertheless "somewhat careless" about forwarding them to others.

Carl Paladino admitted many of these emails were "off-color" and could be considered offensive, took responsibility for them, and apologized.

Carl Paladino vied with Rick Lazio, Steve Levy, and Myers Mermel for the Republican nomination.

At the state Republican convention, Carl Paladino received 8 percent of the weighted vote, falling short of the 25 percent needed for automatic ballot access.

Carl Paladino then submitted 28,000 signatures in an effort to petition his way onto the Republican primary ballot.

Carl Paladino's petitions were sufficient to qualify him for the primary.

Carl Paladino originally planned to seek the nomination of the Conservative Party of New York but dropped out because party chairman Michael Long allowed him only two minutes of speech time to make his case.

Carl Paladino held a two-week boat tour at the end of May 2010 along the Erie Canal to learn more about the rest of upstate New York.

Carl Paladino frequently called for debates, first with Lazio and then with Cuomo.

Carl Paladino said he might be willing to spend more than $10,000,000 of his own wealth on the campaign.

Carl Paladino's campaign submitted 30,000 signatures for the Taxpayers line on August 10,2010.

Long later indicated he would endorse Carl Paladino and encourage his allies to nominate him as Lazio's replacement.

Carl Paladino later said he did not know of any actual affairs of Cuomo, and that the implication was not intended.

In October 2010, Carl Paladino was criticized for anti-gay remarks he made to Orthodox rabbis in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Carl Paladino won all eight counties in the Buffalo media market but only a few counties outside of that region, all of which were rural upstate counties.

Carl Paladino did help the Conservative Party gain third place on the ballot for the first time since losing the line in 1998.

In February 2013, Carl Paladino announced his candidacy for the South Buffalo seat on the school board of Buffalo Public Schools.

In May 2016, Carl Paladino won re-election to the School Board; he defeated 18-year-old Austin Harig of South Buffalo, a Hutchinson Central Technical High School senior.

On December 23,2016, Carl Paladino took part in an interview with alternative weekly newspaper Artvoice.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz called for Carl Paladino to resign and Trump's transition team called his comments "absolutely reprehensible".

In October 2011, Carl Paladino filed a lawsuit against National Grid and Verizon for what he alleged were exorbitant fees which the two companies charged for services.

Carl Paladino filed a lawsuit against Buffalo Public Schools in July 2012, citing abuse of executive session and lack of transparency in the process of awarding a contract to the district's new superintendent.

The lawsuit was thrown out of court within a week of its filing; Carl Paladino said he would appeal the decision.

Carl Paladino endorsed Newt Gingrich in the 2012 presidential election and campaigned for him in New Hampshire.

Carl Paladino campaigned for Gingrich in New York; Paladino's impact was noted in Niagara, Cattaraugus and Wyoming Counties, counties that Paladino had carried in 2010; Gingrich, despite no longer being a serious contender for the nomination, polled strongly enough to prevent Romney from gaining a majority in those counties.

Carl Paladino endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and was the New York co-chair of Trump's campaign.

In 2018, Carl Paladino stated intentions on Twitter to run for Congress to represent New York's 27th congressional district, after the incumbent representative Chris Collins stated he would withdraw from the ballot that year in response to Federal charges of corruption.

When Collins reversed his decision a few weeks later and remained in the race, Carl Paladino did not proceed and instead endorsed Collins.

Carl Paladino endorsed incumbent Democrat Byron Brown in the 2021 Buffalo mayoral election.

Carl Paladino was considered the frontrunner, but outside spending on negative advertisements and multiple controversial comments led to his lead's evaporation.

Carl Paladino lost the primary to former ally Nick Langworthy, despite support from Elise Stefanik.

Carl Paladino confirmed to the Post that he employed the convicted individual, who he called a "good man," for decades and gave him a "second chance" after his conviction.

Carl Paladino opposes allowing minors to abort a pregnancy without the permission or notification of the minor's parents; he has castigated lawmakers who have voted in favor of allowing late-term abortions past 24 weeks.

Carl Paladino opposes most social distancing efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, believing they have destroyed small businesses and were an overreaction to a virus he recognizes as serious.

Carl Paladino himself contracted the virus through unknown community spread and was briefly hospitalized with mild pneumonia in early September 2020 but has since recovered; he has not changed his stance.

Carl Paladino, who has a handgun permit and "carries wherever it is legal", is strongly in favor of firearm ownership and Second Amendment rights; he seeks to repeal the New York State Assault Weapon Ban.

Carl Paladino has participated in rallies against the NY SAFE Act.

In June 2022, Carl Paladino shared and then deleted a conspiracy-laden Facebook post suggesting the racist mass shooting in Buffalo was part of a plot to take away people's guns.

Carl Paladino planned to declare a fiscal state of emergency under the New York constitution, which he would use to freeze compensation of state, municipal and school employees and cut the state budget by 10 to 20 percent.

Carl Paladino proposed placing a minimum residency requirement of one year before anyone could claim state welfare benefits.

Carl Paladino proposed training family members to care for people who would otherwise be in long-term care.

Carl Paladino has proposed increasing the frequency of constitutional convention referendums, currently set for every 20 years, down to 10 years.

Carl Paladino has expressed distaste for public service labor unions, which he has compared to pigs, and is an outspoken critic of state laws such as the Wicks Law, which sets prevailing wage requirements, and the Taylor Law, which gives unions significant negotiating advantages in exchange for prohibiting them from striking.

Carl Paladino promised to take a hard line in negotiations with unions, whose contracts expire in April 2011, and would have refused to grant them favorable conditions.

Carl Paladino supported governor David Paterson's efforts to furlough state employees.

Carl Paladino would have relied on the state's rank and file to target persons "incapable for whatever reason of performing their functions at a cost productive level", and hoped to eliminate 60,000 jobs from the state workforce through these reductions.

Carl Paladino would have sought to eliminate numerous perks such as state-owned take-home vehicles.

Carl Paladino sought to institute a merit-based pay system and end automatic raises.

Carl Paladino favored what he called "school choice", saying it would "put some competition in the marketplace" against the New York State United Teachers.

Carl Paladino would seek a complete reorganization of the state education department and encourages dissolution of the Board of Regents, the SUNY Board of Trustees, the Lower Manhattan Development Agency, the Empire State Development Corporation, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Off-Track Betting Corporation, the Adirondack Park Agency, and the New York Power Authority.

Similarly, the state Department of Transportation would, under Carl Paladino's proposal, absorb the independent Thruway Authority and the Bridge and Tunnel Authorities.

Carl Paladino has proposed the use of repeatedly calling special sessions to pressure uncooperative legislators into passing his legislation, much as governor Paterson did during the 2009 New York State Senate leadership crisis and the 2010 budget negotiations.

Carl Paladino considered a solution for districts that span multiple counties.

Carl Paladino did not support a reduction in operational aid for school districts and believed the budget can be balanced without reducing that aid.

Carl Paladino would put most of his assets in trust, turning over operations of the company to his son.

Carl Paladino opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, and said that he believes that the long-term impact of the act would be just as memorable and possibly more deadly than the September 11 attacks.

Carl Paladino personally opposes same-sex marriage; he states that he does not particularly care for the issue.

Carl Paladino has said he would take a more libertarian stance on the matter in regard to state policy; he follows a "live and let live" approach to the topic of homosexuality, actively opposes discrimination against homosexuals, and encourages a statewide referendum on allowing same-sex marriage in the state, saying that he would honor the result of said referendum.

Carl Paladino has accused Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of the Marriage Equality Act of selling out their votes.

Carl Paladino supported proposals to enforce excise tax laws on Indian tribes such as the Seneca of the Iroquois, who are not legally required to pay state taxes on goods sold on their sovereign reservations.

Carl Paladino suggested individuals would be punished for resistance or demonstrations.

Carl Paladino believes the tribes are run by a cabal of "fifteen to twenty thugs" who are using their price advantage to benefit themselves and not the general populace of their reservations.

Carl Paladino said he received only $47,000 from the Seneca nation for the land and that the plans for the casino were far different than the ones proposed at the time of sale.

In July 2016, Carl Paladino used Twitter to say that United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch should be lynched, then deleted his tweet.

Carl Paladino has a habit of communicating via "open letter" which he uses to both debate and denigrate political opponents.

Carl Paladino later bought and demolished the building after it fell into disrepair.

Carl Paladino has one daughter from an extramarital affair with his former employee, Suzanne Brady.

The chairwoman of the campaign, Nancy Naples, told The New York Times that Carl Paladino gained a feeling of emotional closure through his gubernatorial campaign.

Carl Paladino had said that the campaign was something his son wanted him to do.