CLERGY TO ASK MINORITY VOTERS TO WEIGH STANCES ON PROFILING

TRENTON, July 18 -- A prominent black New Jersey clergyman said today that
he and fellow pastors would urge black and Hispanic voters to withhold
their support for any candidate for governor who does not endorse measures
to counter racial profiling.

The minister, Reginald T. Jackson, who is the executive director of the
Black Ministers Council, said the organization wants both major-party
candidates, Jim McGreevey and Bret D. Schundler, to drop their opposition
to ending state troopers' practice of asking some motorists to consent to
searches, and to support measures to outlaw racial profiling.

Mr. Jackson contended during a news conference at the State House that
stop-and-search statistics released Tuesday by the New Jersey attorney
general's office showed that profiling, a practice in which minority
drivers are stopped in disproportionate numbers, continues.

Mr. Jackson vowed that pastors of the 600 churches in the council would
urge their congregations not to back gubernatorial candidates who do not
endorse the council's anti-profiling proposals. "It is not enough to come
to our churches, attend our events, parade in our communities and smile in
our faces," Mr. Jackson said. "If you want us to stand with you, then we
expect you to stand with us on this issue."

Mr. Jackson noted that a third candidate for governor, William E. Schluter,
a state senator running as an independent, has endorsed the council's
positions. In response to a question, he declined to rule out the
possibility of seeking minority-community support for Mr. Schluter.

In the past, both Mr. Schundler, the Republican candidate, and Mr.
McGreevey, the Democrat, have expressed opposition to ending consent
searches, which often follow traffic stops.

The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee has called for a ban on such
searches, in which police officers who stop a car ask the motorist for
permission to search the vehicle.

A spokesman for Mr. Schundler, Bill Guhl, declined to comment on Mr.
Jackson's comments. Mr. Guhl said Mr. Schundler would issue a proposal on
the issue soon.

In a statement today, Mr. McGreevey called profiling immoral, illegal and
abhorrent. He repeated his opposition to banning consent searches, calling
them an important crime-fighting tool. Responding to Mr. Jackson's call for
a law banning profiling as a civil offense, Richard McGrath, a spokesman
for Mr. McGreevey, said a new law was not needed, because officers who
engage in profiling face prosecution.