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.