Controversial N.Y. Pol Carl Paladino Removed From Buffalo School Board

Carl Paladino, a former New York Republican gubernatorial candidate with a history of racist and anti-LGBT comments, has been removed from the Buffalo Board of Education over a violation of the state's public meetings law.

Paladino illegally disclosed information about the board's contract negotiations with teachers, which had been discussed in closed session, according to a ruling issued today by State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, The Buffalo News reports. "His disclosures constituted a wilful violation of law warranting his removal from office," she wrote.

"He is out effective immediately," Frank W. Miller, the board's attorney, told the paper. "The commissioner wrote a 33-page decision in which she went through and analyzed and knocked down all the various arguments he made." Paladino has vowed to appeal the decision, and he has already sued the school board for seeking to have him removed.

Citizens have been calling for Paladino's removal in light of comments he made in December about Barack and Michelle Obama. On his wishes for the New Year, he told Buffalo weekly Artvoice he hoped the outgoing president would die of mad cow disease and that the first lady would "return to being a male and [be] let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla."

In response to widespread outrage over the comments, Paladino sent out a statement saying they had "nothing to do with race" but were "deprecating humor" regarding "2 progressive elitist ingrates who have hated their country so badly and destroyed its fabric in so many respects in 8 years."

Paladino, who campaigned heavily for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, has a history of inflammatory rhetoric. During the campaign, he gave an interview in which he said Trump supporters were people who "want the raccoons out of the basement." He denied that this comment had racial overtones either.

In 2015, at a political rally, he complained about "damn Asians" and other "foreigners" attending state universities. And in 2010, when he ran for governor, "Paladino received national attention for circulating emails, including pornographic images, and one that included the use of the N-word," the News notes.

Also during the gubernatorial campaign, in a speech he said he didn't want children to be "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option" as heterosexuality. Later, he issued a statement apologizing "for any comment that may have offended the Gay and Lesbian Community or their family members" and saying he opposes discrimination.