For immediate release: June 19, 2018

Notice of News Conference
Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Location: Clinton Square , Syracuse (rain under the eves at SUNY Oswego Metro Center across Water St. from Clinton Square)
Time: 2 PM
Who: Mark Dunlea for State Comptroller; Howie Hawkins for Governor

Mark Dunlea, the Green Party candidate for State Comptroller, will hold a press conference in Syracuse on Wednesday June 18 to announce his candidacy. A major focus of his campaign is on climate change, starting with requiring the state pension funds to divest from fossil fuels. Dunlea has helped coordinate divestment campaigns in NYC and NYS over the last 5 years. NYC has recently agreed to divest but the State Comptroller prefers to talk with Exxon and other fossil fuel companies.

Dunlea will be accompanied by Syracuse resident Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor. Hawkins will discuss the recent entry of former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner into the gubernatorial race.

Hawkins and Dunlea will discuss the ongoing problems with corruption in the Cuomo administration and in Syracuse during the Miner administration. Cuomo’s top aid was recently convicted for political corruption related to the CPV power plant in Orange County and economic development in Syracuse. Other Cuomo administration officials and donors are presently on trial over the awarding of government contracts as part of the so-called Buffalo Billion. Cuomo convinced the legislature to end the oversight of various state contracts by the state Comptroller before the contracts for the Buffalo Billion were entered into.

The FBI and the Manhattan District Attorney are also investigating the Cuomo administration over the awarding of $25 million in state contracts to Crystal Run right after the health care firm in the Hudson Valley gave Cuomo large campaign donations.

Dunlea was the long-time Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network of NYS. Hawkins is a retired Teamster from UPS.

For immediate release: June 18, 2018

While Howie Hawkins welcomed fellow Syracuse resident Stephanie Miner to the Governor’s race today, he said that her pro-corporate economic policies had increased income inequality and segregation during her tenure as Mayor.

He also questioned her involvement with a new political party that has deep ties to the 1% including the CIA, Rudolph Guiliani and the real estate industry.

“Having more candidates to provide voters with alternative visions and choices is always good for democracy. Everyone, of course, is against corruption — until they are elected,” said Hawkins.

Hawkins questioned Miner’s credentials on corruption and clean government. He noted that her campaign manager, Sherman Jewitt, was paid by Syracuse taxpayers in 2016-2017 as PR consultant for $84,000 a year to work part time, 10 hours a week. 

For immediate release, June 18, 2018

Howie Hawkins, who has advocated for the legalization of marijuana in New York for decades, welcomed today’s announcement by the NYS Health Commissioner that a soon-to-be released report will, at long last, support the legalization of recreational marijuana.

But Hawkins cautioned that the devil is always in the details.

“Even though New York decriminalized small amounts of marijuana 40 years ago, local police (especially in New York City) have used the discriminatory enforcement of the law to target people of color,” noted Hawkins.

Syracuse Post-Standard, June 18, 2018

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Green Party Gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins today described Stephanie Miner's entrance into the governor's race as an effort to chip away at support for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"My general take is she's going to split the centrist vote from Cuomo," Hawkins said Monday morning. "It seems it's really going to hurt him."

NY Daily News, June 17, 2018

… The possibility she will take the plunge has left some Dems shaking their heads. They say she has little chance of winning but instead could help Republican gubernatorial candidate Marcus Molinaro’s chances, especially if Nixon loses the Democratic primary but stays on the Working Families Party line.

In that scenario, Miner, Nixon, and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins could draw away enough votes from Cuomo that Molinaro would need far below 50% to actually win, they say.…

Some suggested having Miner on the ballot could give anti-Cuomo Democratic forces another choice should Nixon decide not to run on the Working Families Party line if she loses the primary to Cuomo.

A poll while Miner was still mayor last year showed Cuomo defeating her in a gubernatorial matchup in her home city of Syracuse.

NY State of Politics, June 14, 2018

Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins doesn’t want voters to think the choice for progressives is between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon.

Hawkins, who is launching his third bid for governor this year atop the Green Party ticket, has sought to draw contrasts in recent weeks between his candidacy and the platform of both Cuomo and Nixon.

It’s potentially a challenge: Nixon is seeking to draw liberal votes away from Cuomo in the primary and, should she remain in the race on the Working Families Party line, come November. For now, polling has shown Cuomo with mostly steady support from liberal voters.

But Hawkins has pointed out releases and elsewhere that both Democratic candidates are not necessarily good for New York on issues like the property tax cap.

The measure is a signature issue for Cuomo and Nixon has said she supports it, but wants to make it easier to override.

“Tax cap is a campaign sound bite, not a sound policy,” Hawkins said. “There is nothing progressive in Nixon’s call for an easier voter override of the cap. The cap still freezes the inequities in funding schools and local government services between low- and middle-income communities and affluent communities. It still institutionalizes rising property taxes.”

Hawkins insisted his plan would lead to a property tax cut, by shifting from local property and sales taxes to a progressive state income and stock transfer tax.

“Then the state should use those revenues to provide adequate and equitable school funding and to pay for the state’s unfunded mandates on local governments with increased revenue sharing,” Hawkins said.

At the same time, Hawkins in an email Wednesday question Nixon’s prior support for Hillary Clinton and noted the Green party outpolled the Working Families Party in the previous election — a result that ultimately determines placement on the ballot in the next election.

“Now the media is starstruck with actress Cynthia Nixon,” he said. “As she challenges Gov. Cuomo in the Democratic primary with Working Families Party backing, the media give regular coverage to self-styled ‘progressive’ Democrats, which includes Cuomo as well as Nixon, Bill DeBlasio, Zephyr Teachout, and the rest of the WFP-endorsed Democrats.”

For immediate release, June 14, 2018

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for governor, called today for the creation of a public broadband utility by New York State.

On Monday, the federal regulation enforcing net neutrality ended. New neutrality required internet service providers to treat all communications equally. Now private companies can favor some content over others, change extra fees for access to certain sites, and block certain websites and services.

“With the demise of net neutrality, which effectively regulated ISPs as common carrier public utilities, it is time to restore net neutrality for New Yorkers on a publicly-owned broadband system,” Hawkins said Thursday.

On Tuesday, a federal court approved the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, reducing an already concentrated market from four to three giant firms. 50 million Americans have access to only one ISP and more than half only have a choice of two providers. Many rural and inner city residents and business still do not have access to high-speed internet.

“Public ownership is justified when markets are monopolized,” Hawkins said. “Internet access with net neutrality must become a right if freedom of speech is to have any practical reality with today’s communications technologies. Now is the time to secure this right through a public broadband utility, operating at cost for public benefit and not for private profit. Its mission should be to provide faster connections at lower rates with net neutrality to every community in the state.”

by Howie Hawkins

I need your help to bust through the media "greenout."  Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or to the producer of a news or public affairs broadcast you watch urging them to cover the Green campaign. 

You can pick a policy you like that I am advocating and say Howie Hawkins deserves coverage for it. See my platform for policies.

Or you can say you are a progressive trying to make up your mind between Andrew Cuomo, Cynthia Nixon, and Howie Hawkins, but you need more coverage of Hawkins to do it.

Or take another approach. The point is to let the media know people want coverage of the Green campaign.

You can also help by becoming a social media activist. If the corporate media won’t cover us, we will have to get the word out by social media. Share and like our facebook posts to your networks, and retweet (not just like) our tweets.

My campaign puts out media releases, op-eds, facebook posts, and tweets on the issues we face on a daily basis. Check out the news blog on my website.

The media only promotes the candidates of the two corporate parties. They admit they focus more on “the horse race” than the issues. The horse race is driven by campaign contributions. And they focus what they can sell as entertainment. The media covered Trump’s campaign incessantly as a new reality TV show in order to boost their ratings – and advertising revenue. It propelled Trump to the White House.

Now the media is starstruck with actress Cynthia Nixon. As she challenges Gov. Cuomo in the Democratic primary with Working Families Party backing, the media give regular coverage to self-styled “progressive” Democrats, which includes Cuomo as well as Nixon, Bill DeBlasio, Zephyr Teachout, and the rest of the WFP-endorsed Democrats.

The media defines these Democrats as “the left” and ignores the Greens ...

• even though the Green Party got more votes for governor in 2014 than Cuomo got on the Working Families Party line.
• even though Nixon joined Cuomo to support Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
• even though a Nixon spokesperson did not answer a question about whether Nixon voted for Cuomo in 2014.
• even though the Greens democratic eco-socialist positions are distinctly to the left of the socially-liberal but economically-conservative “progressive” Democrats.

This media framework is reflected in the broader progressive movement, which seems to be scared so stupid by Trump that they can’t see the damage that so-called “progressive” Democratic leaders are doing right before their eyes.

Albany Times Union, June 13, 2018

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is in a good position to secure his third term, according to a new poll from the Siena Research Institute that looked at likely voters for November.

The two-term incumbent has a 19-point lead over Republican nominee Marc Molinaro and, heading into a September primary with Cynthia Nixon for the Democratic nomination, he is viewed favorably by 67 percent of Democratic voters....

In a direct matchup, Cuomo is backed by 61 percent of Democratic voters and Nixon gets 26 percent, which is comparable to the results of an April poll by Siena that looked at registered voters....

Nixon is endorsed by the Working Families Party, although it's not a guarantee she will be on the line in November; Howie Hawkins is the Green Party nominee for the general election.

For immediate release: June 13, 2018

The Green gubernatorial ticket of Howie Hawkins and Jia Lee called today on the state Senate to reject both versions of the teacher evaluation bills under consideration.

Lee is a public school teacher in New York City running for Lt. Governor on the Green Party ticket. Lee said last week that the bill on state school assessments and teacher evaluations that passed the Assembly and is pending before the Senate “...is all smoke and mirrors. It does not eliminate using student scores on standardized tests to evaluate teachers. Instead, it just makes the use of such scores subject to collective bargaining. It keeps the ranking of schools by test scores in place.”

Hawkins said the teacher evaluation bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan on Monday night appears to share the Assembly bills’ goal of subjecting student tests for teacher evaluations to local collective bargaining, but then makes the bill even worse by proposing to expand charter schools. The bill raises the state’s charter school cap from 460 to 560 and ends regulation by the State Education Commissioner of yeshivas, a number of which have been criticized for low educational standards and poor student outcomes.

“Flanagan’s bill would undermine public education by redirecting public money to privately-owned charter schools. The hedge fund donors to Flanagan and his cohorts in both major parties will love it. They can double their money on loans to charter schools thanks to the New Markets Tax Credit. It’s good for hedge fund billionaires, but bad for the education of our children,” Hawkins said.