According to NY State of Politics, State Democrats on Monday released a new TV ad knocking Republican candidate for governor Rob Astorino’s comments made on Capital Tonight in 2011 in which he jokingly suggested patients losing out on dental benefits could eat soup.

In the interview, Astorino was offering his thoughts about reducing Medicaid costs when he noted dentures, for instance, aren’t covered in some states.

“They’re OK. I mean, I see a lot of healthy people in California, too. But it all gets down to prioritizing, Liz, I mean, that’s really what it is,” Astorino said in the interview. “Because we could sit there and be on a treadmill forever, which is really what this state has done. Nobody wants to make a decision.”

Dentures, for instance, is something Medicaid recipients could live without, Astorino suggested in the interview.

When asked how someone without dentures could eat, Astorino flippantly replied with a laugh, “Soup is good.”

The surrogates for Gov. Andrew Cuomo aren’t laughing.

In the ad released today, the clip from the interview is shown

“Cuts in dental services? Cuts in prescription drug coverage? It’s all a joke to Rob Astorino,” the ad’s narrator says.

Democrats actually telegraphed their plans to use this in an ad earlier this year, with members of both parties expecting the sound byte coming back to bite Astorino.

Ken Lovett at The Daily News wrote in February that the clip would likely be used in an attack ad.

“It’s a good reason not to do a lot of electronic interviews,” a GOP operative told Lovett at the time.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D5hPpQAtWs?rel=0]