Hevesi, Opponent Callaghan To Debate This Evening
BY JOHN TOSCANO

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi and his re-election opponent Christopher Callaghan have agreed to a debate tonight at 7 p.m. on NY1, two days after the state Ethics Commission ruled Hevesi had broken the law by having a state worker chauffeur the comptroller's wife over the past three years.

The ethics ruling has given Callaghan new hope of defeating Hevesi on Election Day, November 7, just 13 days away.

Beside getting Hevesi to agree to the debate, the state Republican Committee donated $25,000 to Callaghan's campaign minutes after the ethics ruling was announced.

Party spokesman Ryan Moses said the party hopes to get a television ad blitz running statewide.

Despite the candidate's and the party's new found confidence, Callaghan trailed Hevesi by 40 points in a poll taken last Friday by WNBC/Marist College. Hevesi led by a 62-22 percent count with 16 percent undecided.

It would appear Callaghan has too much ground to make up in too little time to defeat Hevesi, despite the incumbent's problems.

In other reactions to the ethic ruling, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said his office will try to calculate how much Hevesi owes the state for using the state employee as a driver for three years and collect it. Hevesi determined he owed about $82,000 and paid it back. But the commission said the amount was inadequate.

Besides Spitzer's going after money that Hevesi may owe, the Albany district attorney has an investigation looking into the entire matter to determine if any criminal laws were violated.

Under the Ethics Commission ruling, Hevesi could face impeachment by the Assembly or a vote by the state senate to remove him.

However, neither body had announced any action as the Gazette went to press yesterday afternoon.

Hevesi had used one of his staff members to chauffeur his wife, Carol, over the past three or four years because she has been seriously ill during that period of time. She now suffers from constant pain and is in a nursing home.

In examining the case, the Ethics Commission found Hevesi had claimed he needed security for his wife as the reason he wanted a chauffeur for her, but the Ethics body found there was nothing to back this up.