The Cuomo campaign is not taking GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio’s “double-dipping” pension fund slam against LG contender Bob Duffy lying down, deploying multiple surrogates to defend the Rochester mayor’s honor and unveiling a “fact check” feature on its Website.

The first response came from state Democratic Party Executive Director Charlie King, who was installed by Cuomo long before the AG was even an official gubernatorial contender to act as the rapid-response attack dog so the campaign didn’t have to dirty its hands.

Response No. 2 came in the form of a press release from state Association of Police Chiefs Executive Director John Grebert who said Lazio’s comments “denigrate the service of all those who risked their lives as law enforcement officers.”

By using loaded language that makes a false argument about Mayor Duffy, Mr. Lazio is basically saying that every law enforcement officer in NY who earns a pension for his or her years of work and also works another job after retiring is doing something wrong,” Grebert continued.

“Rick is so out of touch with the middle class that he can’t comprehend that after retiring, most cops need to take another job to support their families. Unlike Lazio, most cops and their families can’t survive on a pension alone after they retire.”

“Mayor Duffy opted not to take any further pension benefits for his time as Mayor of Rochester.”

“If Mr. Lazio had a basic grasp of the facts, he’d be praising him instead of denigrating his service and, by extension, the service of all those who work in law enforcement.”

Duffy has a press conference earlier today in Rochester on an unrelated topic and was asked about his pension. He said everything was done “legally and above board.” We’ll be bringing you that footage shortly, but here’s an excerpt:

“In all honesty, if you ask our budget director, I cost the city less money…certainly my pension is on the state fund….I have nothing to hide. It is what it is, and I certainly am willing to take any questions on that.”

“And I think that for those that criticize, Mr. Lazio being one, I would be happy to line up our financial decisions and situations, and I am at peace with everything. The attorney general knew this.”

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