CUOMO IS INVESTIGATED BY LOBBYING COMMISSION FOR RADIO ADS

ALBANY, Aug. 22 - An advocate of softening the state's mandatory
drug-sentencing laws has told the State Lobbying Commission that Andrew M.
Cuomo directed and paid for part of a radio advertising campaign this year,
possibly in violation of lobbying laws.

The commission subpoenaed Mr. Cuomo, the former Democratic gubernatorial
candidate, today, asking him to appear on Sept. 18 and answer questions
about the advertising campaign under oath.

"The reason we had to subpoena him is because we have been talking to his
attorneys for the past week, tried to give him every opportunity to explain
this," said David M. Grandeau, the executive director of the commission.
"They haven't cooperated with us."

Mr. Cuomo's lawyer, James D. Featherstonhaugh, however, said Mr. Cuomo had
done nothing that would require him to register with the lobbying commission.

"He made some comments and suggestions as to what could be contained in the
ads but he did not direct them, he did not write the checks for them," Mr.
Featherstonhaugh said.

Lobbying officials discovered Mr. Cuomo's role in the advertising campaign
to reduce mandatory sentences for drug offenses when Deborah P. Small, a
leader of the Drug Policy Alliance Network, gave a sworn deposition last
week about a letter-writing campaign her group had failed to report, an
investigator at the commission said.

During the deposition, Ms. Small also said that Mr. Cuomo had personally
directed a $30,000 radio advertising campaign in late June on WROW, an
Albany station, even though her group paid the bill, the investigator said.
She told the commission that Mr. Cuomo controlled the content of the ads
and how often they were aired.

The commission also obtained several e-mail messages between the Drug
Policy Alliance Network and Mr. Cuomo's office backing up Ms. Small's
testimony, the official said. In an interview today, Ms. Small said again
that Mr. Cuomo's office had run the campaign, though she said he had only
paid for a third of the ads.

"We weren't the ones who created it or who wrote the copy," Ms. Small said.
"I signed off on the copy that was developed by the guy that Cuomo was
working with. But it wasn't ours, it wasn't an ad that we initiated."

Mr. Cuomo is not a registered lobbyist. He could be fined $25,000 for
failing to register as a lobbyist and $25,000 for failing to report his
expenditures for the ads or other lobbying activities. He has admitted
giving Ms. Small's group a $10,000 political contribution, which she says
was used to pay for a third of the advertising campaign.

Ms. Small also faces a fine of $2,500 from the commission for failing to
report the advertising campaign as well as a letter-writing campaign that
Mr. Cuomo, apparently, had nothing do with.

Mr. Grandeau's office is also investigating the lobbying activities of
Russell Simmons, the hip-hop impresario who in June inserted himself into
the negotiations between the governor and the Legislature over revamping
the drug laws.

Mr. Simmons has sued the lobbying commission in federal court in Manhattan,
saying the investigation in effect violates his First Amendment rights. Mr.
Grandeau has promised under a court-approved agreement to suspend his
investigation until a judge rules.

Mr. Featherstonhaugh argued that that agreement should cover Mr. Cuomo's
activities too, but Mr. Grandeau disagreed, arguing that the radio campaign
is separate from the money Mr. Simmons and others spent to urge the
Legislature to change the laws.