June 12, 2010

State Senator Eric Schneiderman

VIA EMAIL to friends@schneiderman.org

Dear State Senator Schneiderman:

On the eve of a potential government shutdown due to dysfunction in Albany, the political stunt
pulled by your campaign yesterday came as both a shock and a reminder of just how backward the
priorities have become for some of those we elect to state government.

I find it appalling that as our state approaches financial meltdown, your focus remains on politically-
motivated, misleading attacks that you believe benefit your personal campaign for higher office.
Your priorities, in the face of the legislature’s devastating cuts to vital state services, underscore the
paralyzing dysfunction in Albany and the reasons residents across New York have lost confidence in
their state government.

There is no question that the only debate that you should be focusing on right now is one between
you and your colleagues regarding our 72-day-late state budget.

While your decision to engage in political attacks in the hours before state government, at least,
imposes sweeping cuts to families and neighborhoods across the state, remains the most troubling
portion of your actions, the factual inaccuracy of your attack also raises serious questions regarding
the integrity of your campaign.

District Attorney Rice has always supported reforming the Rockefeller-era drug laws. In fact, as the
top law enforcement official in Nassau County, District Attorney Rice implemented the key
principles of the reforms long before the legislature chose to take action. No district attorney has
been more vocal or more innovative when it comes to reducing lengthy sentences for non-violent
first-time offenders, diverting non-violent addicts to treatment rather than jail, and to launching
groundbreaking re-entry programs to assist ex-offenders returning to their communities.

To the District Attorney, these issues aren’t just campaign promises or bullet points on a resume. As
the only candidate in this race who has actually been a part of implementing these reforms, District
Attorney Rice is the most credible validation of the reforms’ importance, she is the most keenly
aware of their impact on communities and she is the most experienced in delivering the real, tangible
results that the reforms sought to achieve.

Your selective and misleading quotation of District Attorney Rice’s correspondence is a blatant
attempt to obfuscate this issue and to distort the superior record of the District Attorney. To ensure
there is no doubt regarding her commitment to Rockefeller-era drug law reform, I have attached the
District Attorney’s letter in full and draw your attention to a critical sentence that you chose to omit:

(over)
 “Let me be clear that I strongly support the reforms that we achieved to these laws in
the 2004 legislative session and I believe wholeheartedly that additional reforms can
be made that will address the needs of our addicted population and, at the same time,
make our streets safer.”

As a full reading of the letter makes clear, your misrepresentation of District Attorney Rice’s record
on Rockefeller-era drug law reform is both simplistic and disingenuous, and should not be tolerated
by our party’s field of candidates for attorney general.

While your campaign’s willingness to engage in this distortion effort is troubling, what remains most
egregious is your decision to spend time and energy on political stunts rather than the job voters
elected you to do. I believe a simple answer to a simple question will provide New Yorkers a
valuable insight into your candidacy and your priorities: Do you believe it is more important right
now to engage in political stunts to advance your campaign, or, as a sitting New York State senator,
should you be focused solely on providing solutions to the worst budget crisis in our state’s history?

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Stein
Campaign Manager
Kathleen Rice 2010