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Candidates for Attorney General debate

Monday, October 16, 2006

Dave Evans
More: Bio, 7online.com News Team

(New York-WABC, October 15, 2006) (WABC) -- The two candidates for New York State attorney general squared off here in our WABC-TV studio for their first debate on Sunday. Both had a lot to lose. One candidate is under federal investigation. The other is being called inexperienced. The debate was not always civil.

Here is Eyewitness News political reporter Dave Evans.

When the former district attorney of Westchester County arrived at our studios she had one goal: Paint her opponent as a legal lightweight.

Among the verbal barbs Republican Jeanine Pirro threw at Democrat Andrew Cuomo:

"Andrew, you're wrong again because of your lack of understanding of the criminal justice system."

"He doesn't have the experience. He doesn t have the qualifications."

"You know, Andrew, your running for attorney general would be like my running for Joe Torre's position because I played softball 21 years ago."

Surprisingly there wasn't much time spent here on the federal investigation into whether Pirro broke the law when she considered wire-tapping her husband. But when pirro challenged Cuomo's integrity he lowered the boom.

Andrew Cuomo, (D) Candidate for Attorney General: "There is a candidate who is being accused of criminal wrongdoing and is under investigation by a number of law enforcement agencies and has her ethics questioned. That is not me however. "

They disagreed on whether Indian Point nuclear power plant should be closed immediately. They clashed on same sex marriage, and they bickered over the Jeffery Deskovic case. He was convicted of rape and murder, but a DNA test cleared him 16 years later. The question was why Pirro didn't respond to his letter for help.

Jeanine Pirro, (R) Candidate for Attorney General: "Do you have it? Do you have the letter? Do you have the letter?"
Cuomo: "I don't have anything."
Pirro: "I didn't think so."

The two also quarreled over Cuomo's record when he ran President Bill Clinton's U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Pirro: "My opponent would rather talk about politics than talk about his record at HUD. I don't blame him."

Cuomo: "I supervised 300 lawyers, that's three times more than my opponent has supervised."

Pirro went on the attack in this debate because she had to. She's 19 points down in most polling, and although she did well in our debate Cuomo may simply be too far ahead to catch at this point.

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