Two Assembly members, Sandra R. Galef and John J. McEneny, in Albany with Charles Juntikka, center left, and five students: from left, Li Lin, Yergeny Khavkin, Olga Kaplan, Xiu-Feng Chen, Arun Nair. Photo by David Jennings/New York Times

      Mr. Juntikka, a bankruptcy lawyer from Manhattan known for taking up political causes, and his students have engaged in guerrilla tactics against 27 Democratic and Republican legislators who they say did not support recent proposals to overhaul laws on campaign finance, lobbying, ballot access and the budget.

      The students have mailed 80,000 postcards to registered voters since September, urging them not to vote for their local senator or Assembly member.

      They have even posted photos of the legislators on a Web site, www.students4reform.com, branding them as opponents of political reform.

      They set up toll-free numbers for voters to weigh in, then transferred so many calls to the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, that their aides complained to the phone companies. When Bell Atlantic and AT&T tried to intervene, Mr. Juntikka merely taped their warnings to him and replayed them for reporters. He did not stop the calls.

      "We are distressed by the slow pace of reform in Albany," said Mr. Juntikka, flanked by several high school and college students during a trip to the Capitol last week. "These are all things they know in their hearts ought to be done. We want them to pay a political price for not supporting political reform."

      But the legislators have accused Mr. Juntikka's group of distorting their records without giving them a chance to reply, and of unfairly singling them out on issues that have long divided the Legislature.

      Many claim they are simply easy targets because they face tough re-election campaigns.

      "It's a political hit list," complained Senator Frank Padavan, a Republican who has represented Queens for 28 years. "I think it's irresponsible to target people without talking to them. It's not fair, and doesn't serve a useful purpose, and it's misleading."

      Mr. Juntikka and his students have angered -- and worried -- many legislators who are unaccustomed to fending off such direct attacks. Most lobbyists and special interest groups focus their efforts almost exclusively on the influential leaders of the Legislature. But these students have pursued rank-and-file members with a tenacity that has won cautious praise from public advocates.

      "While we don't engage in these kinds of electoral tactics, it's nice to have an attack dog on our side," said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

      Mr. Juntikka, 46, has relished taking on the political system. In 1996, he came close to forcing New York City to hold a referendum on whether to establish a $100 cap on campaign contributions and allow more public money to be used in elections. He dispatched students to collect the 50,000 petition signatures required, but a state appellate court later ruled that campaign finance was not a topic for a referendum.

      "He's an irritant to those in power, but he's very effective," said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan and the Bronx. "He doesn't have a political agenda other than raising issues and pestering the people in authority until they do something. You can't buy off a guy who loses money every time he does one of these causes."

      Mr. Juntikka has spent $35,000 of his savings on his latest cause, mainly to pay for postcards, phone lines, a Web site and, most recently, television ads. From his law offices in Midtown Manhattan, he commands a small army of high school students and recent graduates who work for him on weekends and during vacations, earning an average of $8 an hour plus free lunches.

      Several legislators acknowledged they check the group's Web site and phone lines, if only to find out what is being reported about them or their colleagues. And Mr. Juntikka's phone bills and Internet visitor logs showed more than 300 calls or Web site hits from other legislators and their staff members.

      A few legislators have even suggested new subjects to Mr. Juntikka on the sly -- Democrats singling out Republicans, and vice versa.

      "The most important thing for all legislators, if they want to run again, is obviously to win," said Assemblywoman Sandra R. Galef, a Democrat from Westchester County. "This can be very effective. It's not like it's your opponent; it's someone else, and that gives it credibility."

      A moment later, Ms. Galef confided, "I would not want to be a targeted person."

      Mr. Juntikka and his students have intensified their attacks on legislators this month with a series of negative television ads around the state. One ad, titled "The Three Stooges," lambastes the budget process controlled by Gov. George E. Pataki, Mr. Silver and Mr. Bruno. The ad, which has run in a half-dozen cities, including Albany, Rochester and New York City, asserts that the local Assembly member or senator does not want change and should not be re-elected.

      Senator Padavan, who was singled out in a cable TV ad shown in Queens, called the assertion "absolutely wrong" and pointed out that he has served on committees that held public hearings on the budget for the last two years. But Mr. Juntikka said the senator did not sign on to legislation that would have guaranteed that these committees would be called in the future.

      The bill, sponsored by Assembly Democrats, has support from only 19 senators -- all Democrats -- out of the total 61.

      Other legislators complained that they were not exactly sure why their records had been attacked. "They have not lobbied me with a specific matter," said Assemblywoman Susan V. John, a Democrat from Rochester, after she was named in an ad about lobbying abuses.

      Mr. Juntikka said she did not support a Senate bill that would have closed loopholes in the lobbying law; Ms. John said the bill never came up for a vote in the Assembly.

      Undeterred by criticism, Mr. Juntikka and his students have continued to plot against the legislators whose names are on yellow stickers posted on a state map in his office.