Joe Cherner, the president of SmokeFree Educational Services and the driving force behind Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking legislation, has now received signed questionnaires from Democratic gubernatorial candidates H. Carl McCall and Andrew Cuomo indicating that both men would ban smoking in a wide variety of settings in which it is presently allowed, including jails, bars, bowling alleys, and pool halls. This goes beyond even Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal to eliminate smoking in all bars and restaurants, which itself might mean a San Francisco-like situation with streets full of rowdy, smoking drunks.

In 1996, New York’s Common Retirement Fund, which is entirely controlled by Mr. McCall, became the first state pension fund to restrict tobacco investments. Mr. McCall has also announced that, if elected, he will attempt to collect taxes on the sale of cigarettes and gas on Indian reservations to non-Indians. The comptroller’s willingness to steer the pension fund in political, instead of profitable directions is a disturbing sign, as is a proposal that could well create another boondoggle like that which ensued when the city sent enforcement agents to take down the license plates of New Yorkers shopping at a New Jersey Ikea. The main question, though, is what distinguishes the two candidates, who both seem eager to extend government into ever more aspects of private life.