GAYS ENDORSE PATAKI; MCALL RACES TO RAISE MONEY, ATTACK OPPONENT

NEW YORK - A major lesbian and gay organization Saturday endorsed Republican Gov. George E. Pataki for re-election, while his Democratic challenger scrambled to replenish his dwindling campaign funds.

The Empire State Pride Agenda said both Pataki and the Democratic candidate, State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, had supported the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. But the governor's position as an incumbent swayed the group's decision.

"Because of the governor's record as an incumbent on our issues and his willingness to use the power of his office to support equality for the lesbian and gay New Yorkers, the Pride Agenda endorses George Pataki for re-election as governor of New York," said Matt Foreman, the organization's executive director.

Foreman said his group recognized the governor's support of legislation that would protect homosexuals from abuse, harassment and discrimination in employment, housing and public services.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said lawmakers would return to session in December to vote on the previously stalled bill. Pataki has repeatedly pledged to do "everything in my power" so that the bill would move forward.

The Pride Agenda, a statewide, nonpartisan group founded in 1990 to advocate lesbian and gay civil rights, endorsed the governor in a printed statement. On many occasions when he has received endorsements, Pataki has appeared in person.

The governor was campaigning in upstate New York on Saturday, and his spokesman, Michael McKeon, said he did not appear in person to accept the endorsement because of "a scheduling conflict." However, McKeon said, the Pataki campaign plans to include members of Pride Agenda in upcoming political events.

McCall, campaigning in front of a housing project in upper Manhattan, said Pataki "has not, over the last eight years, fulfilled his promises to pass the (gay rights) legislation and to be an outspoken supporter of gay and lesbian rights as I have been."

"But it's election time, and George Pataki needed another endorsement," he said. "Unfortunately, one more endorsement has been purchased by George Pataki."

Pataki also garnered another endorsement Saturday from Crain's New York Business weekly.

Crain's said that while McCall "has mostly ignored the state's growing budget deficit problem and has been unwilling to say with any clarity what he would do to solve it," Pataki "has increasingly committed himself to solving the state's fiscal problems without a tax increase."

On the campaign money front, McCall said last week that he had only $722,000 in campaign funds left in the bank.

Friday, at a Manhattan meeting, Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, handed McCall a $400,000 check. In return, McCall has agreed to step up his campaigning.

The surprise move came just days after McAuliffe reportedly said the national party would not provide McCall with any big infusion of money unless he could close the double-digit gap against Pataki.

"I've got to put the resources where we can win elections," McAuliffe told the New York Times.

An Oct. 16 poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed Pataki leading McCall, 47 percent to 31 percent, with third-party billionaire candidate B. Thomas Golisano at 18 percent among likely voters.

Three weeks earlier, the Quinnipiac poll had Pataki leading McCall, 46 percent to 35 percent, with Golisano at 12 percent.

Spending in the New York governor's race has soared above the $118 million mark.

SENATE PLANS LATE SESSION TO BAN DISCRIMINATION ON GAYS
The Buffalo News/AP
Michael Gormley
October 23, 2002
     ALBANY - The State Senate will return to session in December to pass bills banning discrimination against homosexuals and providing Medicaid cost relief to county and local taxpayers, its Republican leader said Tuesday.
     Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Rensselaer County Republican, said Tuesday the Senate will also seek to reach deals with the Assembly and Gov. George E. Pataki on bills to provide bioterrorism protections, to reform the long mandatory sentences of Rockefeller-era drug laws, to fund the state Superfund environmental cleanup program and to toughen state drunken driving standards.
     Although the Democratic-led Assembly plans no late-year session, its members could come back if the chambers agree on compromises, Charles Carrier, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said Tuesday.
     Silver accused the Senate's Republican majority of returning to pass the Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Act (SONDA) as an "election-year gift" for Pataki. The 25,000-member Empire State Pride Agenda, the bill's principal advocate, is expected to announce its endorsement for governor on Friday.
     Pataki had been under fire for failing to get the Senate to go along with the bill after calling for its passage late last year and in his 2002 State of the State address.
     The bill, approved earlier this year by the Assembly, would protect gays and lesbians from abuse, harassment and discrimination in employment, housing and public services.
     "I think this is the breakthrough we've been fighting for over three decades," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a New York City-based group representing gays and lesbians. "It's historic."
     Pataki issued a statement Tuesday praising Bruno for bringing the Senate back to do the legislation. He said he hopes the Assembly also returns and that deals can be struck on other long-discussed issues.
     A government watchdog group, however, said legislators should act before Election Day, Nov. 5, so voters can hold lawmakers accountable. The governor's office and all seats in the Legislature are up for election next month.
     "Having legislators vote after the election on major policy changes hammered out in secret . . . is just another example of what's wrong with Albany's secret, anti-democratic culture," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
     Still under closed-door discussion is a possible deal over a lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to spend billions of dollars more on high-needs schools, including those in New York City. Pataki has had "serious discussions" with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), which sued the state for more school aid, but it's too early to speculate on the outcome, said Pataki spokesman Joseph Conway.
     Pataki is considering a CFE proposal now, according to the group's director, Michael Rebell. Rebell said the group is aware of the political context of the discussions with Pataki, who is seeking a third term. Pataki mentioned the ongoing discussions to the New York Daily News editorial board Monday.
     Pataki has been criticized for successfully appealing a 2001 court decision that found the state's school funding system discriminates against students in poor urban and rural schools. CFE, a group of educators, parents, labor unions and public education advocates, lost the case on appeal this year.
     Not everyone is convinced a deal is close.
     "I think it's just rhetoric to get (Pataki) past the election," said Assemblyman Education Committee Chairman Steven Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat.

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