Metro

Madam’s ‘gay’ twist

SIGN OF THE TIMES:Kristin Davis is running this “Vote homo, not Cuomo” ad against Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo, putting a twist on an infamous campaign line from the 1970s. (EPA)

“Manhattan madam” Kristin Davis, a minor-party candidate for governor, is reviving one of the most infamous incidents in New York politics — the supposed posting of “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo” signs in the bitter 1977 battle for mayor won by Ed Koch.

But she’s adding a new twist.

“Vote homo, not Cuomo,” Davis declares in a newly posted online video ad that claims the Democratic attorney general isn’t sufficiently committed to gay marriage.

DISPATCHES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Davis said yesterday the commercial would begin appearing on some local TV outlets as soon as today in a modest “buy” of about $40,000.

Davis, who served several months on Rikers Island for running an escort service that she says supplied hookers to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, declares in the ad, “A vote for me sends a strong message to Cuomo. We demand gay marriage now: in other words, vote homo, not Cuomo.”

A Cuomo spokesman called the ad the handiwork of self-described Republican dirty-trickster Roger Stone, Davis’ “campaign manager” and a key adviser to Cuomo’s Republican opponent, Carl Paladino.

Cuomo, a gay-marriage supporter, helped run dad Mario Cuomo’s 1977 mayoral campaign against then-Rep. Ed Koch, during which Koch accused the younger Cuomo of being responsible for posting fliers reading, “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo.”

The Cuomos denied the allegation and said that as far as they knew, no such fliers existed.

Koch, who is backing Andrew Cuomo for governor, has recently said he accepts Andrew’s assertion that he wasn’t involved in producing such fliers.

Meanwhile, as the race for governor entered the home stretch yesterday, former President Bill Clinton, campaigning for Cuomo in Brooklyn, ripped Paladino, while the GOP candidate went to lower Manhattan to blast the proposed “Ground Zero” mosque that was a protest target over the summer.

Clinton denounced Paladino’s “greatest hits,” including the call to use state prisons for work training of welfare recipients.

“What they need is a job!” Clinton said, not jail dorms.

At 7 World Trade Center, near the site of the proposed mosque, Paladino vowed that as governor he would “put in motion whatever power I have to stop” construction.

“This attempt to create an affront, a symbol of conquest, a symbol of triumph over the American people, will never happen,” he said.

The GOP hopeful threw his support behind a pledge, reportedly signed by 25,000 construction workers, including 3,000 in New York, who refuse to help build the mosque.

But Paladino strangely made no mention of Cuomo, who has said the mosque project should go ahead.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com