Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch has branded Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell a “bum” after the Theresa Democrat refused to sign his trio of reform pledges.

Mr. Koch’s group, New York Uprising, started running a series of Internet advertisements this week accusing Mrs. Russell, a first-term lawmaker, and six other Assembly Democrats of being unwilling to “fix” a “broken” state government. The group is targeting districts where the incumbent has not signed the pledge, but their challenger has.

The ad concludes with the former mayor saying: “Throw the bum out!”

While Mrs. Russell may philosophically agree with the group’s aims for nonpartisan redistricting, responsible budgeting and ethics reform, she has declined to sign any pledges this campaign season — including the one circulated by her party’s gubernatorial candidate, Andrew M. Cuomo.

“My pledge is to represent the north country and work on the challenges were facing,” she said.

Her Republican opponent, David W. Forsythe, has signed the pledge.

Mrs. Russell said it was not appropriate to blindly “sign onto what they’re pushing” with out seeing specific pieces of legislation.

“The folks from New York Uprising are not from our area and are not taking into account the best interests of the north country,” she said. “Their idea of nonpartisan redistricting could be even worse than what people think about right now.”

Adam J. Riff, co-executive director, said the group knows any candidate “can say they conceptually believe in the idea of reform.”

But this year, he added, “with the way the state of the state is right now, it’s too important not to commit to these specific reforms that New York Uprising has championed.”

The director concluded: “People can speak supportively. But if they’re not willing to sign the pledge committing to it, voters probably should ask themselves, ‘Why?’”

Mrs. Russell voted for an Assembly ethics reform bill this year which she considered a “big step forward,” but was vetoed by Gov. David A. Paterson.