Cuomo, Astorino trade blows in only election debate

The gubernatorial debate involving Gov. Cuomo and Republican challenger Rob Astorino got ­vicious Wednesday night, as ­Astorino predicted the governor would be indicted and Cuomo accused his foe of racial discrimination.

Astorino, trailing in the polls, claimed Cuomo could wind up in trouble for interfering with the governor’s own anti-corruption panel, the Moreland Commission.

“You’re looking at Andrew Cuomo . . . a person who very well may be indicted after this Election Day comes,” Astorino said during the debate in Buffalo. “We’ve seen this before in New York. It has to come to an end.”

Cuomo called that prediction “outrageous” and defended his handling of the commission, which he shut down after the Legislature agreed to pass a ­watered-down ethics law this past spring.

Cuomo said that while he and his aides gave the commission chairman “advice,” its decisions were made “independently.”

“There was no abrupt stopping. I wanted the commission to get [an ethics] law passed,” he said. “That’s why I empaneled.”

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara is probing the work and actions of the Moreland Commission, including whether Cuomo interfered with it.

The debate in Buffalo also included Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and Libertarian Party standard-bearer Michael McDermott.

Astorino said he supports term limits “to clean up the corruption under the Andrew Cuomo administration.”

Cuomo then turned the tables on Astorino, blasting the Westchester County executive for not creating enough minority housing.

“The federal government is ­suing one county executive out of 3,000 in the nation for discrimination and it’s Mr. Astorino,” Cuomo said. “They’ve taken $ 20 million from him for discriminating in Westchester County because African-Americans and Latinos cannot be in the county.”

Astorino said Cuomo’s use of the “race card” was “despicable.”

“The federal government wants to take over zoning in Westchester County and every neighborhood around this country and put apartment buildings in any neighborhood. I’m going to fight that tooth-and-nail,” ­Astorino said.

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