When a group of prominent black politicians demanded Tuesday that Carl P. Paladino apologize for his “slur” against low-income New Yorkers, the gubernatorial candidate’s campaign immediately shot back at “Albany’s dialect of political correctness.”

Welcome to the 2010 Republican race for governor — Paladino style.

In what has morphed into a familiar pattern, the Buffalo attorney and developer is caught making what his opponents call some “outrageous” remark. Then his campaign responds by painting him far outside the Albany stream — someone who will not participate in “the Albany game.”

It all played out again in recent days after the Associated Press reported that Paladino had proposed reopening shuttered prisons for voluntary programs that include training in “personal hygiene” for welfare recipients.

That prompted the African- American officeholders to demand Paladino apologize for an idea they called “misguided and deeply insulting.”

“His further suggestion that they need lessons on personal hygiene is appalling and plays into harmful racial stereotypes,” the officeholders said. “Maybe those sentiments would have been acceptable in the Jim Crow South, but they are not welcome in a state as tolerant and diverse as modern New York.”

The statement was signed by former New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson; State Sens. Eric Adams of Brooklyn and Antoine M. Thompson of Buffalo; Assemblymen Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, Keith Wright of Manhattan, Carl Heastie of the Bronx and Karim Camara of Brooklyn; and Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes of Buffalo.

“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident,” they added.

Indeed, Paladino seems to thrive on controversy. He previously was criticized for sending racist and pornographic e-mails to friends, for labeling Gov. David A. Paterson a “drug addict” and for threatening to invoke state powers of eminent domain to prevent construction of the controversial Islamic community center and mosque proposed for lower Manhattan.

An Albany Times-Union blog stoked the controversy Tuesday when it unearthed a Niagara Gazette story from last October quoting Paladino as saying Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver “fit the bill of an anti- Christ or Hitler” — echoing the remarks of erstwhile gubernatorial candidate Chris Collins that helped drive the Erie County executive from the 2010 race.

Polls now show Paladino gaining on opponent Rick A. Lazio in the GOP primary. And his campaign is not veering from its approach. In every instance of criticism, spokesman Michael R. Caputo is ready with now-familiar responses.

“Carl speaks in New York kitchen table language,” he said Tuesday. “He’s not fluent in Albany’s dialect of political correctness.

“They need to pull up their underpants,” he added about critics, “because it’s not going to be pleasant for them.”

In other developments Tuesday, Paladino picked up the backing of one more GOP leader: Ken Padgett, chairman of the Seneca County Republican Party. That makes five counties that have joined the Paladino effort in recent weeks.

Paladino also renewed his debate challenge Tuesday, urging Lazio to accept the YNN cable network’s invitation for a debate Monday in Syracuse or “drop out of the race.”

But a spokesman for the group called TeaParty365 said Tuesday that Lazio had agreed two weeks ago to appear at the organization’s candidates forum Monday in Manhattan, while Paladino, citing a schedule conflict, had declined.

rmccarthy@buffnews.comnull