Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former top advisor, Joe Percoco, was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption last month. On the very same day, Cuomo's campaign released an attack ad against the governor's Republican challenger — one that involved his wife.

"Marc Molinaro handed over hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks to Tinkelman Corporation, a county contractor. Then, Molinaro personally profits when Tinkelman hires a member of Molinaro's family. Molinaro then handed Tinkelman county contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars. Molinaro profits. Taxpayers pay," the narrator says in the ad.

The accusations of pay-to-play politics appear to be an attempt to distract from Percoco's sentencing and other corruption cases in Albany.

Here are the facts: The firm did receive tax breaks from the county while it employed the wife of Molinaro, who is the Dutchess County executive. It was also awarded contracts that were competitively bid.

Molinaro did receive close to $7,000 in campaign contributions from the firm over 12 years. But Molinaro's wife did not get big money from her employment. A spokesman for his campaign said she was paid about $80,000 over three years.

Molinaro has disputed the idea that there was any type of wrongdoing, and he attacked Cuomo for dragging his wife into a campaign fight:

"My wife — my six-month pregnant wife — is out of your league. Out of your league. She is above you," Molinaro said in a Twitter video directed at the governor in late-August. "You want to pick a fight? Stick with me. She's a class act; you're not.

 

His response echoes lines delivered by Michael Douglas at the end of the movie "The American President."

"You want a character to debate, Bob, you better stick with me. Because Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league," Douglas says in the film.

The Cuomo campaign would not say exactly how much it spent on the attack ad. But the state's campaign finance records show the campaign paid $500,000 to a media-buying agency on the same day the attack ad was released, although it's not clear if that payment was for a larger ad purchase.