PALADINO’S ALL IN

NY GOPer taps fat wallet in House bid

Carl Paladino, the real-estate developer and former Republican gubernatorial nominee, says he plans to spend whatever it takes to win a House seat in his native Western New York this year, even as scandals swirl around his nascent campaign.

Paladino, 75, is worth an estimated $150 million, some of which he is preparing to deploy in his primary fight against state GOP Chair Nick Langworthy in the solidly Republican 23rd District.

“I’ve already put $300,000 into the [campaign] account,” he told The Post. “I am very confident.”

On Thursday, Paladino (pictured) sparked outrage after comments resurfaced in which he called Adolf Hitler “the kind of leader we need today.”

“We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it,” he said of the Nazi leader in a February 2021 radio interview unearthed by the liberal watchdog group Media Matters on Wednesday.

Paladino — who in 2010 beat the favorite, then-Rep. Rick Lazio, in the GOP gubernatorial primary — said that the comments had been taken out of context.

Still, he defended his past remarks about then-President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

In 2016, he told a Buffalo newspaper that he hoped President Obama would die of mad-cow disease and that Michelle Obama should “return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”

Although he apologized days later, he said last week that he did not regret the remarks.

“I stand responsible for what I said. I said them in a humorous vein . . . most people laughed at it, they got a kick out of it,” said Paladino.

The tycoon, meanwhile, said he planned to stir things up, even among his fellow Republicans, if elected to the House.

“Oh, I’ll cause trouble, there is no question about that, at the appropriate time and on the appropriate issues,” he said.

The 23rd District has been represented by freshman Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs since 2020. But Jacobs dropped plans to seek reelection last week after facing blowback from his own party for supporting gun control following the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas.

The announcement left an opening for Paladino, who brushed aside any suggestion of new gun restrictions.

“The best gun control is going to be when we devote more resources to mental illness. That is what is behind all this,” he said.