Sometime in March 2010, Michael Caputo becomes the campaign manager for Carl Paladino, a previously unknown real estate mogul who is running for governor of New York. The tactics that Caputo applies to the campaign are later used by the Trump campaign.
Caputo was recommended to Paladino by Roger Stone.
He has hired strippers to embarrass a political opponent. He cycles through eight pairs of eyeglasses to make himself more difficult to recognize. And he readily shows reporters the scar from a bullet wound he says was the result of a drunken encounter with a rival in Russia…
Behind each outlandish advertisement, slingshot tactic and red-meat riff of Mr. Paladino’s campaign is Mr. Caputo, his campaign manager, whose high-octane brain plays foil to his candidate’s high-velocity mouth.
From Mr. Caputo’s pen have come some memorable gibes at Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Paladino’s Democratic rival, whom they have dubbed Prince Andrew, Status Cuomo and Br’er Andrew.
From Mr. Caputo’s mind have come blistering attack advertisements, including one that featured a fake photo of Mr. Cuomo, the state’s attorney general, shirtless in the shower and covered in mud, as part of an effort to portray him as a slimy politician.
The New York Times
External Source
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/nyregion/25caputo.html
Photo: Yana Paskova for The New York Times
