MCCALL CITES COMMERCIAL IN AN ATTACK ON PATAKI

H. Carl McCall, the state comptroller and a Democratic candidate for
governor, yesterday accused Gov. George E. Pataki, his Republican opponent,
of hypocrisy and of squelching opposing voices.

"On issue after issue, he says one thing in front of the camera, and then
when he gets behind closed doors, he does something else," Mr. McCall said
during a news conference in front of Mr. Pataki's office in Midtown Manhattan.

Mr. McCall's remarks were prompted by a commercial critical of the
governor's proposal to change the Rockefeller drug laws. Last week, a
second Spanish television station pulled the commercial at the request of
the governor's staff.

The story of the commercial illustrates the importance of Latino voters in
the 2002 governor's race. Of the 19,000 people in prison in New York State
for drug crimes, about 7,800 are Hispanic and 9,700 are black, according to
the Correctional Association of New York, an advocacy group for prisoners.

But perhaps because Mr. McCall is black, Governor Pataki has focused on
winning over Latinos.

He has repeatedly promised Spanish-speaking audiences that he is working to
change the Rockefeller laws, which contain mandatory sentences for
first-time offenders that critics consider harsh and ineffective. In turn,
those who want the laws changed have funneled their money into Spanish
advertisements, in an attempt to keep the governor from winning a
rhetorical victory with Latinos without offering what they consider
substantive revisions.

In Lower Manhattan, wearing a red life jacket after a kayaking trip on the
Hudson River yesterday, Mr. Pataki defended his drug law proposal as
"comprehensive reform."

"I think it's important that we reform these outdated laws," he said.
"We've learned a lot in the 20-plus years since they were enacted. One of
the things we've learned is that intensive treatment, in appropriate cases,
is better than incarceration. And we should do that, and we're working
aggressively to try to get that law passed."

The governor's proposal would allow prosecutors to continue to decide which
offenders should get drug treatment instead of prison time. But the
decision could be appealed.

The advertisement, sponsored by an affiliate of the Drug Policy Alliance, a
group working to change drug laws, shows people whose family members are in
prison and says, "Governor Pataki's reforms will not reunite these
families." In June, the alliance bought time from WXTV, Channel 41, a
Univision Spanish-language station.

But the station pulled the spots after a letter from Chauncey G. Parker,
the governor's director of criminal justice, called them "blatantly
untruthful." At the time, the Pataki campaign was buying $45,000 worth of
commercials each week at that station.

The alliance corrected part of the advertisement, which said people were
serving sentences of "30 years to life." The maximum sentence under the
laws is 25 years to life.

The advertisement now says the inmates have sentences of "up to 25 years to
life." But Deborah Small, director of public policy for the alliance,
objected to Mr. Parker's other complaints.

After the correction, the station refused to restore the ad, saying there
were still concerns about its accuracy. That was front-page news in El
Diario/La Prensa, a major Spanish daily, with a headline, loosely
translated, "Pataki's Gag Order."

Last week, the alliance bought time on WNJU, Channel 47, a second Spanish
station and a Telemundo affiliate. Again, Mr. Parker sent a letter. Again,
the station pulled the ads.

Calls to WNJU's spokeswoman on Friday and to the general manager yesterday
were not returned.

The two letters from Mr. Parker appear to contradict each other and to
mistranslate the advertisements. In the first, Mr. Parker wrote that the
maximum penalty is "a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life." In
the second, after the ad was corrected, he wrote that "there is no `25 year
obligatory sentence' for any drug felony conviction, or any other crime."

Under the Rockefeller laws, judges can impose 25-year sentences, but are
not required to.

Mr. Parker also translates one phrase as "an obligatory sentence of 25
years," not, as the advertisement says, "up to 25 years." At Mr. McCall's
news conference, campaign workers for his Democratic opponent, Andrew M.
Cuomo, handed out a statement criticizing the governor for failing to
change the laws. In a later e-mail message, Mr. Cuomo added that the
governor "is more concerned about stopping any damage to his own image than
stopping the inhumane damage to our communities caused by the Rockefeller
drug laws."

But a spokesman for the governor, Michael McKeon, said that the governor's
staff would object to any advertisement that it believes misrepresents the
governor's position. "We made our case to Channel 41 and Channel 47, and
they made their decisions," he said.