2010 Person of the Year: Carl Paladino

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(WBEN)  Carl Paladino, the first Western New York candidate for governor in over 50 years, has been selected as WBEN's Person of the year for 2010. 

In more than a week of online voting, WBEN.com readers gave Paladino, an anti-establshment Tea Party favorite, more than three times the vote of runner up Chris Collins, the Erie County executive.

The honor is fitting in a year when Paladino twice carried Erie County in more broad elections with far more at stake. 

The Paladino Archive a sampling of our 2010 coverage Paladino: What About Christian Church Near Ground Zero? Trying To Avoid The Rant,  Paladino Speaks To Biz Leaders Paladino Unveils Plan For Welfare Reform Paladino & Dicker: Fresh Video, Continued Fallout Paladino Does Fox News: O'Reilly, Cavuto On TV, Colmes On Radio ... Paladino On Gays: "That's Not How God Created Us" Aide: Blunders, Press Cost Paladino Race

Early in the year, Paladino rode a wave of voter anger to take the Republican nomination for Governor from Congressman Rick Lazio, the early endorsed candidate.  And while losing statewide in November, he carried Erie County by a margin almost as large as the online WBEN poll  

Paladino, whose pledge to clean up state government with a baseball bat captivated many conservative voters, handily defeated Lazio in September's GOP primary even though Lazio had won the party's formal backing.

But Cuomo, the state attorney general, cruised to victory by a 62-38 percent margin over Paladino in November's general election.

During the campaign, his fiery rhetoric spoke often of the need to limit the scope and size of government, but it was that same outspoken nature that most observers say led to his downfall, and the election of Democrat Andrew Cuomo in November.

"All of us on staff knew we had a tiger by the tail. And we knew that he had predisposition to speak his mind, whether it was appropriate at the moment or not,"  said campaign manager Michael Caputo in a post-election forum

Over, 2400 people voted over 8 days to give Paladino 45.6 percent of the Person of the Year vote. 

The other finalists and their vote percentage:

• Erie County Executive Chris Collins  13.8 percent

• David Stapleton of David Homes, 8.04 percent

• Jordan Levy, Chair, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp, 6.7 percent

• Buffalo Bills Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, 4.67 percent

• Governor David Paterson, 3.53 percent

• Anti Violence Activist Darnell Jackson, 2.19 percent

• Gov.-Elect Andrew Cuomo, 2.15 percent

• Sabres and USA Olympic Goalie Ryan Miller, 1.56 percent

• Restauranteur Mark Croce, 1.62 percent

Nominees were selected by the WBEN News team after a review of the significant news stories of the year.  The ballot was placed on line Christmas Eve and remained there until 5am, Dec. 31. While not a scientific survey, WBEN.com  allowed only vote per Internet address during the duration of the event. 2,466 votes were recorded.