GOLISANO TO TAKE TO AIRWAVES TO CONDEMN ROCKEFELLER LAWS

Staking out a far more sweeping position on the Rockefeller drug laws than
either of his opponents in the race for governor, Tom Golisano will call
today for the laws' repeal, his campaign aides said.

Mr. Golisano, the Independence Party candidate, has said as much before,
with little fanfare. But now, he will back up his statement by broadcasting
commercials that accuse Gov. George E. Pataki of offering a Rockefeller
plan that is "not real reform."

Campaign aides would not say exactly how much Mr. Golisano, who has already
spent nearly $40 million on his bid for the governorship, will spend on the
new ad campaign. But, Roger Stone, Mr. Golisano's campaign adviser, said,
"Everyone will know his position by the end of the week."

"Tom Golisano is the most conservative candidate in this race, and he is
acknowledging that the Rockefeller laws are harsh, ineffective and
expensive," Mr. Stone said, noting that more than $700 million is spent
yearly to incarcerate drug offenders. "We are hopeful that his position
will give others now the cover they need to get these laws repealed."

While Mr. Golisano's candidacy is considered a long shot by most political
professionals, he has raised several issues, including higher education and
the upstate economy, that have broadened the agenda of the campaign. The
drug laws' critics see the commercials as an opportunity to revive an issue
that has slipped somewhat from the public eye.

"The issue will really be aired out," said Randy Credico, the organizer of
the Mothers of the New York Disappeared, a group that has lobbied against
the laws. "The only time people are reminded of the Rockefeller drug laws
is when someone in the news media writes one of these horror stories. Now
they'll be reminded daily about the horrors of the Rockefeller drug laws."

The laws impose lengthy mandatory minimum sentences on even first-time,
nonviolent drug offenders. Efforts to amend them are stalled in a situation
not atypical of Albany politics: everyone professes to agree that the laws
are too harsh, but no one agrees on what to do about it.

H. Carl McCall, Mr. Pataki's Democratic challenger, has accused the
governor of failing to live up to his promise to change the laws
substantially, and Mr. Pataki in turn has blamed the Democratic leaders of
the State Assembly for refusing to compromise.

The principal difference between the Assembly plan, which Mr. McCall
supports, and the governor's plan is that the Assembly would give judges
greater discretion over which offenders would receive treatment instead of
prison time.

Advocates for change have hoped that the impending election would pressure
Mr. Pataki into a compromise, especially since the governor seems intent on
winning over Latino voters. Nine out of 10 people imprisoned under the laws
are black or Latino.

But the debate in Albany has been over the degree of change, and advocates
have long been told that outright repeal of the laws is a political
impossibility. Like Mr. Golisano, Andrew M. Cuomo, who ran against Mr.
McCall in the Democratic primary, called for abolishing the laws.

Mr. Golisano's commercials, in both English and Spanish, will feature
people who were imprisoned under the laws and their family members,
including Hilda Garcia, who has blamed Governor Pataki for her husband's
death in prison, at age 68, after he was denied clemency for his crime of
acting as a lookout for a drug gang, which earned him a sentence of 15
years to life.

Mr. Golisano will release a detailed position paper today that emphasizes
treatment over incarceration for nonviolent, first-time offenders, and that
advocates redirecting law enforcement resources toward apprehending
kingpins instead of low-level drug offenders, Mr. Stone said.