By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

Having scored a David-like political victory over a downstate Goliath, Carl Paladino may find the road to beating Andrew Cuomo in this fall's gubernatorial race tougher than the one he just navigated against Rick Lazio.

Paladino, who upset Lazio in the Sept. 14 statewide Republican primary, now faces Cuomo, the endorsed Democratic Party candidate. Cuomo enters the race with strong name recognition and a political war chest of more than $23 million.

The Buffalo businessman handily beat Lazio using a "mad as hell' theme that he took from the 1976 movie "Network."

"For it to work this time, though, Carl has to come across not as a mad man but as a rational business leader who is fed up and ‘mad as hell,' " said Kevin Hardwick, former chairman of the Canisius College political science department and current Erie County legislator. Hardwick remains an associate professor and director of the college's urban studies program.

He predicts that Paladino's campaign against Cuomo, New York's current attorney general, will be a bruising contest. It began Sept. 14 during Paladino's late-night victory speech when he took a few swipes at Cuomo.

Cuomo's camp responded with some swipes of their own at Paladino.

The key, according to Hardwick, is for him to remain focused on his mad-as-hell theme but not to go too far overboard.

"Carl can't play into his caricature," he said. "He needs to come across as someone who has had enough. Period."

Paladino, meanwhile, said his themes won't change. He wants lower state taxes, a business-friendly climate and for Albany to be more cohesive and less dysfunctional.

"There must be a cultural change in Albany to make it happen," he said.

Andrew Rudnick, Buffalo Niagara Partnership president and CEO, said the Cuomo-Paladino race should be an interesting experience for the Buffalo developer. Paladino has been a frequent critic of the Partnership and Rudnick.

"This is not an Upstate vs. downstate race," Rudnick said. "Carl was able to play to the extreme of the Republican Party, but now he is in a much-larger, heterogeneous and voter-centric audience. This is very different than taking on Rick Lazio. Now he has got an opponent who is savvy and has the sophistication of the Democratic Party behind him."

So what should be Paladino's strategy?

Michael Haselswerdt is a Canisius College political science professor and director of the college's Fitzpatrick Institute of Public Affairs and Leadership. He said Paladino should stay the course he has already charted.

"Carl and his handlers should just let Carl be himself," Haselswerdt said. "They should make the election about anger, and if I'm Andrew Cuomo, I don't try to ‘out-anger' Carl Paladino."

The mad-as-hell theme, Paladino's mantra since he entered the race in April, won't be going away anytime soon, insisted the businessman-turned-candidate.

"The people have spoken," he said during his victory speech.

"Yes, we are mad as hell and New Yorkers are fed up," he said.