A furious Rob Astorino, contending that Gov. Cuomo has unleashed "the dirtiest and lowest campaign probably in the history of New York'' against him, will send "cease-and-desist letters" Monday to TV stations to halt new Cuomo ads accusing him of "racketeering and fraud."
"The only way Cuomo knows how to play is filthy . . . $10 million in negative ads against me,'' Astorino, the financially hard-pressed Republican gubernatorial hopeful and Westchester County executive, told The Post Sunday in an exclusive interview.
"These charges come from a baseless civil lawsuit from the same people who were being investigated by the Moreland Commission that the governor shut down, and they'll be thrown out by the federal court as soon as it gets there.''
Cuomo's new commercial, considered even by some Democrats as unusually vicious, ominously begins, "The Rob Astorino story: racketeering, conspiracy, fraud.
"Astorino is being sued for federal racketeering for conspiring with a family and accomplices to rig his election through election fraud.''
What the ad doesn't say is that the lawsuit was brought by one of Astorino's longtime political foes, the leader of the Westchester County Independence Party, the parent party of which has endorsed Cuomo.
Astorino, a former broadcasting executive, said Federal Communications Commission requirements oblige television stations to fact-check political advertising — and he said the Cuomo commercials wouldn't stand up to the scrutiny the "cease-and-desist letters'' will require.
Astorino, meanwhile, revealed that he would soon begin running his own TV campaign to counter Cuomo's attacks in two weeks.
"We're ready to begin the fight,'' Astorino said.
Three recent public-opinion polls have shown Astorino trailing Cuomo by 30 or more percentage points. In addition, Cuomo last month reported having a war chest 14 times larger than Astorino's — $35 million to $2.5 million.
Astorino's plan to unleash his own commercials comes as a growing number of Republican activists fear that Cuomo's heavily funded TV attacks are putting a permanent negative stamp on their candidate.
"It's almost Labor Day and he hasn't moved in the polls, while the general public is seeing more and more of the Cuomo attack ads and not very much from Rob,'' said one of the state's best-known GOP leaders.
Some important Democrats are contending that Cuomo's apparent decision against debating Zephyr Teachout, the leftist Fordham Law professor who beat the governor in court twice to win a spot on the Sept. 9 primary ballot, will damage his reputation nationally.
"Cuomo has no future out of Albany if he doesn't show the fortitude to stand up and speak publicly against some random liberal professor about what he's done,'' said a prominent Democratic operative.
Many top Democrats predict Cuomo won't debate Teachout because he: (1) doesn't want to raise her public profile; (2) doesn't want to risk making a gaffe; and (3) doesn't want to answer questions about US Attorney Preet Bharara's investigation into the Moreland Commission scandal.
Whatever Cuomo does decide, there will be a debate before the primary. It just won't be between Democrats.
Astorino and Teachout agreed over the weekend to hold a debate of their own on public radio on Sept. 4.
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