Dem on Dem Action: Paterson Digging Up Dirt on Andrew Cuomo

It's probably a waste of money considering David Paterson trails Andrew Cuomo by about 70 points in the polls, but it's a sign he'll go down fighting. Hey, whatever it takes. Maybe it'll soften up Cuomo for the general election, even though the New York GOP is so inept they'll probably be steamrolled anyway.

Gov. Paterson has hired the man who was responsible for "negative research" on then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to dig up dirt on Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is preparing to run for governor, The Post has learned.

Paterson's campaign committee signed Maryland-based Judd Legum, research director for then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's bitterly fought presidential primary campaign against Obama in 2008, to a five-week contract earlier this month, with the understanding that he would "prepare a research book on Cuomo" and other potential candidates for governor, said a prominent Democratic Party activist.

"Legum is the guy who did a lot of the opposition research work on Obama, and now Paterson's people are outsourcing that kind of work on Cuomo to him," said the source, who demanded anonymity.

Legum, a friend of Paterson campaign spokeswoman and strategist Tracy Sefl, is being paid about $25,000 for the project, it was learned.

Legum confirmed that he had been hired by Paterson's campaign but, when asked to describe his job, insisted, "I really can't talk about that now," and hung up the phone.

Repeated attempts to reach Legum for additional comment were unsuccessful.

Sefl, who worked with Legum in the Clinton campaign, refused to say whether he had been hired to dig up dirt.

"I'm not going to comment on that," she insisted.

Legum obviously didn't get the job done when it came to snooping on Obama.