McCall Vows to Expand Protections for Tenants

[consigliere]

Here's the relevant portion of an article from the October 20th online edition of The New York Times:
 
McCall Vows to Expand Protections for Tenants
 
By SHAILA K. DEWAN
 
On the eve of the second debate in the governor's race, H. Carl McCall yesterday pledged that he would strengthen the state rent-regulation laws that expire next year.
 
Referring to the Democratic Party as "the party of tenants," Mr. McCall sought to continue the strategy he has pursued all week: remind the city's mostly Democratic voters that Mr. Pataki is a Republican with a Republican ideology. He spoke at a small rally across the street from Stuyvesant Town on the east side of Manhattan in an appearance with some of the city's leading tenants' rights advocates.
 
Noting that Gov. George E. Pataki voted against rent regulations three times while he was a state legislator, Mr. McCall said, "I believe that tenants ought to be protected, that tenants have rights, and as a government we must stand up for the rights of tenants.. George Pataki had that opportunity and what did he do? He failed us."
 
Asked yesterday if he would support renewing the rent regulations, which affect the city and some of its suburbs, Governor Pataki said, "I don't think there's any need to change them."
 
The governor was making an appearance at a telethon at Hostos Community College in the Bronx to raise money for the families whose relatives died in the crash of Flight 587 in Queens last year. Most of the victims were Dominican-American.  
 
In 1997, the rent regulations were renewed at the conclusion of a pitched battle in Albany that began when Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader and a Republican, announced that he would abolish rent protections. Although Mr. Pataki had supported Mr. Bruno's position in the past, he refused to take a position until late in the debate, and then he cut a last-minute deal with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat.
 
The agreement included landlord-friendly provisions, backed by Republicans, making it easier to raise rents and deregulate apartments.