Pubdate: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 Source: Newsday (NY) Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 Author: Jordan Rau, Albany Bureau Chief CUOMO, MCCALL RIP PATAKI, WHO RIPS GOLISANO As the Sept. 10 primary nears, the two Democratic candidates for governor yesterday initiated disparate attacks on Gov. George Pataki. Andrew Cuomo pilloried Pataki's willingness to accept donations from disgraced companies, and State Comptroller Carl McCall castigated him for failing to loosen the Rockefeller-era drug laws. Disregarding his Democratic opponents, Pataki began running some of the harshest television and radio ads of the election, against B. Thomas Golisano, the Rochester businessman who is challenging Pataki on the Independence and Conservative Party lines. The ads concern Pataki's court battle, which has succeeded in initial rulings, to throw one of Golisano's running mates off the ballot because of allegations he voted twice in several recent elections. Pataki's new radio ad says: "Illegal campaign workers. A running mate running from the law. The more you know, the more you know you can't believe Tom Golisano." Cuomo's television ad features one laid-off Global Crossing worker saying, "Governor Pataki has abandoned us in upstate." In the ad, other former workers from the bankrupt company, which laid off about 300 workers in New York, praise Cuomo for pressing politicians to return campaign contributions from executives at Global and other bankrupt companies that were once Wall Street darlings. At a rally at City Hall, McCall and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) attacked Pataki for failing to deliver on his 2001 promise to loosen the state's stringent drug laws, which mandate long prison terms for many offenders. Both Silver and Pataki put forth compromise bills in the past legislative session. Silver, however, refused to reduce prison terms for those caught with the largest quantity of drugs - long sentences that all sides agree should be shortened - unless Pataki also agreed to give judges greater leeway over sentences for lower-level drug offenders. Pataki sided with the state's prosecutors, who oppose giving up much of the power the Rockefeller-era laws grant them. "The governor claims to be for reform, but instead shirks his responsibility," McCall said. "There is overwhelming support in the Legislature for reform, yet Governor Pataki remains the obstacle." Pataki did not respond to McCall's charges, but he accused Assembly Democrats of "delay and stall tactics" in ignoring his proposal, which he called "comprehensive and sensible." The Pataki campaign declined to respond to the Cuomo ad. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth