Former New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladinoissued a statement Tuesday expressing regret for widely condemned remarks he made wishing death upon President Barack Obama.

“I made a mistake,” said Mr. Paladino, a Republican. “I could not have made a worse choice in the words I used to express my feelings.”

The comments that set off the controversy stem from answers to a questionnaire from Artvoice, a newspaper in Buffalo. In a couple of them, published last week, Mr. Paladino said his 2017 hope was for Mr. Obama to die from mad-cow disease and for the president’s wife, Michelle Obama, to “return to being a male and…live comfortably in a cave.”

Since then, the Erie County executive and others in the Buffalo community have called on Mr. Paladino to resign from the Buffalo school board. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the remarks “embarrassed the good people” of New York.

Mr. Paladino said he doesn’t intend to step down from the school board, and added that he is “certainly not a racist.”