Hawkins encourages Rob Astorino and Andrew Cuomo to Take Scroggins' Fracking Reality Tour

Howie Hawkins issued the following statement supporting his Fracking Reality Tour Guide, Vera Scroggins, against Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, which is seeking to jail her in court today for an alleged violation of her injunction during Hawkins' tour a few weeks ago.

Last Friday, Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino sent out a late afternoon press release saying that he would not be going on a gas industry tour of fracking sites in Pennsylvania until after the election because the company providing the tour — Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation — refused to allow members of the press on the tour.

At the same time, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is seeking fines and jail time for grandmother, local resident, citizen journalist and anti-fracking tour guide Vera Scroggins for leading me and my campaign team on a fracking tour. Cabot alleges that she violated a temporary injunction banning her from leading groups to view areas near Cabot's frack sites and to meet families whose water, land and health have been impacted from this toxic process. We didn't have to cross any property lines to see from the public road what these frack sites look, smell and sound like. There is no way to hide how large scale and dangerous this industrial process is. The defendant in court today should be Cabot Oil & Gas, for polluting the water supply of Dimock, PA and ruining people's lives there, not Vera Scroggins.

I stand by Ms. Scroggins and her Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and right to move freely. I commend her for her heroic endeavors to shed light on and show the world what fracking really looks like. What I saw on Ms. Scroggins' tour is more than enough to reaffirm my opposition to fracking in New York state. As Governor I will ban fracking; unfortunately, Governor Cuomo cannot be trusted at all to ban fracking. Besides the environmental disaster that fracking is, and the step backward it represents in the fight to turn the tide in the global climate crisis, we can't allow big oil and gas to come into our state, or any state, to bully citizens and take away their rights.

I encourage Rob Astorino and Andrew Cuomo to take a real tour of fracking sites in Pennsylvania, from the citizens affected, not the gas industry which won't even allow journalists to see what they're doing.

Video of Howie Hawkins on the October 9th Scroggins-led fracking tour can be viewed at: http://www.howiehawkins.org/dimock_pa_videos

By Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for Governor

On the second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, New York needs to become a world leader in taking action on global warming by committing to a 100% clean energy economy within 15 years. The state must also do more to protect residents from the impact of climate change, especially the poor.

Two years ago on October 29, Hurricane Sandy came ashore in New York and New Jersey. In New York City, the storm surge hit 14 feet, swamping the city's subway and mass transit system and flooding low-lying communities from Staten Island to the Rockaways. Damage was also severe on Long Island. Sandy killed at least 182 in the US, including 68 in New York, with property damage estimated at $65 billion. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers, especially the poor and elderly, were stranded for weeks without basic necessities. Many families still have not been able to rebuild their homes.

A little over a month ago 400,000 of us marched in conjunction with the UN Summit, demanding international action on climate change. While the massive rally has prompted New York City elected officials to be more responsive to the need to take action on climate change, it has had little impact on state and national political leaders who used their partisan gridlock to avoid needed action on this and many other critical issues while promoting increased wealth and tax giveaways for the 1%.

The people remain far ahead of our political and economic leaders in wanting action to protect us from the increasing threat presented by global warming. Severe storms will become more frequent, with once in a century devastation occurring every ten years. Already, 400,000 people die annually worldwide from the effects of climate change, primarily children, elderly and the poor who are most vulnerable to heat waves, drought, flooding and famine.

The Green New Deal would provide full employment through action on climate change. A peer-reviewed study shows how we can use existing technology to create a 100% clean energy economy based on renewables by 2030, while lowering electric costs by 50% compared to continued reliance on fossil fuels. Such an investment would create 4.5 million jobs just here in NY. This includes projects such as the LIPA proposals for off shore wind.

Climate scientists tell us that we have at best 15 years to convert to carbon-free energy sources if we are to stop runaway global warming. Every new report tends to find that global warming is accelerating faster than predicted. 

Howie Hawkins Makes Direct Appeal to Zephyr Teachout Supporters
To Vote Hawkins—The Only Progressive on the Ballot

(New York, NY) — This evening Zephyr Teachout announced that she will not be endorsing anyone for governor in next week's elections. She told NY1's Errol Louis that she expects a lot of her supporters to back Cuomo on the Working Families Party line. She also expects a lot to vote for Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins.

"I am making a direct appeal to all those who supported and voted for Zephyr Teachout. I am appealing to all those who care about women's equality, fracking, Albany corruption, clean energy, full and equal funding of schools, the end of high stakes testing,  and all the other progressive values Ms. Teachout stood for in her campaign to vote for me on election day," Hawkins Hawkins, Green Party governor candidate said.  "I am the only progressive candidate running for governor who is campaigning for the progressive values and policies that energized Ms. Teachout's voters. Cuomo cannot be trusted to be a progressive leader on any of those issues—his 4 year record proves it."

"The Working Families Party's cynical electoral fusion confusion strategy, asking their members and supporters to hold their nose and vote Cuomo, should not fool anyone. Cuomo on the WFP line is the same conservative Democrat he is on the Democratic, WEP and Independent lines. Unlike me he, Cuomo will not be an ally for working families, women, the 99% and all those who know that fracking has to be banned in New York State."

Teachout garnered 34% of the Democratic primary vote (181,000 votes) by running on a progressive platform, appealing to voters furious with Governor Cuomo's record. 

In the general election the only candidate running on a progressive platform is Hawkins. The latest polls have Hawkins at 9%, which equates to over 400,000 votes with an expected turnout of over 4.5 million.

Hawkins has received endorsements from the same progressive NYC Democratic Clubs that amplified Teachout's run in the Democratic primary—The Village Independent Democrats, The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, The Downtown Independent Democrats, The Gramercy Stuyvesant Independent Democrats, as well as two Brooklyn clubs, the Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform and the Southern Brooklyn Democrats. For all of these clubs it was the first time in their history that they endorsed non-Democrats.

(West Village, NYC) — At a Monday morning press conference Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for governor and Alexander Meadows, Progressive Party 66th District Assembly candidate endorsed each other. They were also each endorsed by Village Democratic District Leader Arthur Schwartz and Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club President Allen Roskoff. Roskoff's club had been the first to endorse Zephyr Teachout and Schwartz was one of two state Democrats who endorsed Teachout in her primary campaign. 

Meadows' opponent is 24-year Democratic incumbent Deborah Glick. 

"I proudly endorse Alexander Meadows in his run for State Assembly.  We need more challenges to entrenched incumbents to carry forward a progressive platform.  We share the same progressive vision for New York State and neither of us have the encumbrances that the the two parties have as they pander to the financial, real estate, fossil fuel and gambling industries," said Howie Hawkins. "In the Assembly we need to break free from Sheldon Silver's vice grip, and the more independent and third party candidates we have challenging for Assembly office the closer we can get to achieving that goal, and moving forward progressive solutions to our New York's problems and inequities."

"What the residents of the 66th district need now more than ever is new leadership in Albany. The system is rigged and our opponents are part of the broken system. I am running to provide a real choice for voters. I am looking beyond the old guard to 10, 15, 20 years down the road," said Assembly Candidate Alexander Meadows. "New York can and must have an economy that works for all of us — not one that works only for the wealthy and well connected. It is clear to me that this culture of intimidation, back room deals, and working for your largest donors is one of the biggest problem facing our democracy."

Meadows concluded, "Howie Hawkins and I are not Albany insiders, but we believe that our opponents can be beaten and must be challenged. Our progressive values are aligned with the voters of this district and  not with the flawed values of the current leadership."

"I have represented Greenwich Village and much of the Lower West Side for almost 20 years as a Democratic Party Leader. I cannot, in good conscience urge my neighbors to vote for Andrew Cuomo on any line. He is not a true representative of the progressive spirit of the Democratic Party, much less the Working Families Party, and his Women's Equality Party is a fraud. He governs like a heavy handed mean-spirited thug, and has engendered support among my fellow Democrats largely through fear," said Democratic District Leader Arthur Schwartz, one of two Democratic Party officials in the State who supported Zephyr Teachout in the Democratic Primary for governor.

"Cuomo has inadequately funded public education in order to boast about a 'balanced budget,' improvidently ducked the opportunity to stop fracking in its tracks, and hinged New York's future solvency on a risky casino scheme which will syphon money from the poor."

Schwartz continued, "Cuomo has no true record in support of affordable housing, has done little to promote green energy or tax equity, and is more at home cavorting with Republican millionaires than with poor people. For that reason I am endorsing Howie Hawkins, the one candidate for governor who we can call progressive, and I am excited by the breadth of the grass-roots support which his candidacy has received and the potential to build on that in the future."

Schwartz concluded, "For the same reason I am supporting Alexander Meadows in his race for the Assembly. Our district has had the same Assembly Member for 24 years. Once dynamic, she has become stale, standing with Chris Quinn last year when her constituents went for deBlasio, supporting  Cuomo this year when Zephyr Teachout won this district by a 2-1 margin, and making secret deals to give away millions of dollars in Hudson River Park  air rights to developers. Alexander is  fresh, forward looking , and uncontrolled by any powers that be. I endorse his candidacy as well."

On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo appeared at a news conference with Mayor de Blasio and their respective health commissioners to share the sobering news that a New York doctor had tested positive for the Ebola virus.  A calm factual presentation was made, sharing important information with anxious New Yorkers.  The Mayor and the Governor communicated the accurate message that the City and State were doing everything they can to protect the public. They also stressed that that the virus can only be spread by having direct contact of fluids with someone who is displaying the most serious symptoms. 

Fast forward one news cycle.

Now we have Governor Cuomo appearing with Governor Christie of New Jersey. Without consulting the NYC Health Director, these two non-medical experts have decided to use their control of the bi-state Port Authority to immediately quarantine anyone who lands at Newark Liberty and Kennedy Airport if the travelers had direct contact with patients with Ebola in Western African.

It is never reassuring to see Cuomo and Christie making a major policy announcement together.  These two governors couldn't even prevent their bi-state agency, the Port Authority, from running amok on Bridgegate, so how are they going to make important medical decisions?

Governor Cuomo defended their mandatory quarantine directive by falsely saying:  "In a region like this, you go out one, two or three times - you ride the subway, you ride the bus - you could affect hundreds and hundreds of people."  Just one day earlier the Governor was part of a news conference that conveyed just the opposite. 

What appears to have happened between Thursday and Friday is that political calculations once again trumped science for Cuomo.

And now it appears that Cuomo and Christie exceeded their legal authority to impose a quarantine of individuals not showing any symptoms of being ill.

A major problem is that such actions also deter doctors and medical professionals from helping to curb the epidemic by flying to Africa to treat victims. (The first nurse quarantined under the Cuomo rules, Kaci Hickox, has sharply criticized the policy in the press.)

New York State is presently without a confirmed health commissioner. A commissioner might have advised the Governor against making such wildly irresponsible statements like he did on Friday. Nor did he bother to consult with the well-respected NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett.

Ebola is a deadly disease. Medical experts are the ones who should be making medical decisions. The stakes are higher than who is elected governor. Shame on Andrew Cuomo for playing politics with Ebola.  

I support the petition initiated by the Physicians for a National Program calling for responsible federal action to protect Americans from Ebola.

It also should be pointed out the profit motive of drug companies is a major reason why they haven't worked on finding ways to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as Ebola. The public should demand that Big Pharma immediately disgorge some of their profits, stop charging Americans the highest prices in the world, and create a fund to pay for research on drugs that can curb the spread of infectious diseases. 

It is time to demand the socialization of pharmaceutical research and production. A publicly owned drug research and production utility, operating at cost for public benefit instead of private profit, would use high revenues from drugs that are taken daily or frequently in order to subsidize research and production of low-revenue drugs like vaccines for Ebola, malaria, and other infectious diseases that are used once. A public drug research and production industry would save millions of lives around the world.

(Manhattan)—Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that the recent statement by Governor Cuomo that the state's health study on fracking will be completed by the end of the year means that it is highly likely that he will give a green light to fracking in New York—but won’t say so before election day.

Hawkins said that a top priority if he is elected Governor will be address the problems of poverty and income inequality. New York has the worst income inequality in the country. Child poverty is 30% in NYC and in excess of 50% in several upstate cities, including Buffalo, Syracuse and Schenectady.

Hawkins spoke at a campaign rally in New York City headlined by consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Nader spoke in favor of raising the minimum wage and the need for the State to hold on to, rather than rebate, the stock transfer tax. New York collects about $14 billion a year through a tiny tax on each stock transaction but in recent decades has rebated the tax to Wall Street traders. Nader also addressed the Ebola issue.

Also speaking was Nader's favorite baker, Matt Funiciello, the Green Congressional candidate in District 21 (North Country); Lt. Governor candidate and educator Brian Jones; Attorney General candidate Ramon Jimenez; and Theresa Portelli, State Comptroller candidate.

Hawkins' Green New Deal would ban fracking, shut down nuclear plants including Indian Point and instead build 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030. This would help create 4.5 million new jobs while cutting electric rates by half compared to continued reliance on fossil fuels.

"Last month 400,000 of us marched to demand action on climate change. Four years ago I called for a ban on fracking because of its negative impact on the environment and because it is not a solution to global climate change,” said Hawkins. 

“I applaud the citizen protests that have kept Cuomo from approving fracking wells over the last four years. And though Cuomo claims to be undecided on the issue, his administration has been pushing ahead with the infrastructure to support fracking.

“Once the election is over, I expect Cuomo will finally give the green light to at least some fracking, betting that the furor will die down before his next election," said Hawkins.

Cuomo previously floated a trial balloon to allow individual communities to decide for themselves if they wanted to allow fracking.

At the campaign rally as, at this week's gubernatorial debate, Hawkins called for a $15 an hour minimum wage and to fund essential state services by increasing taxes on the rich while cutting taxes for 95% of New Yorkers. He stressed that it was also vitally important to end poverty in New York State, which has contributed to record levels of hunger and homelessness, the latter particularly in New York City.

"For too long our state's fiscal policies have focused on trickle down economic policies that benefit the 1%— the result has been a radical redistribution of wealth to the very rich. It is time for a bottom up approach. We should guarantee a living wage public job to anyone who can't find a job,” said Hawkins. “For those unable to work or who are home caregivers, we need a much stronger safety net, including raising welfare benefits above the poverty level. We also need free universal childcare and school meals, and to invest and expand quality public housing.”

Hawkins said he would end the austerity budgets that Cuomo has championed at both the state level and locally with his property tax cap.  Between 2010 and 2012, cuts to human services by New York State totaled approximately $1 billion. This has translated into a loss of jobs and services, and has cut holes in the safety-net that New York has worked so hard to build. Now that the state budget has begun to stabilize and there is a $4 billion surplus, it is time to reinvest in services to millions of vulnerable and at-risk New Yorkers.   Yet Cuomo recently directed state agencies to freeze spending in next year's budget.

Fourth and Fifth NYC Democratic Clubs to Endorse Hawkins

(New York, NY) —Last night the Downtown Independent Democrats endorsed Green Party candidate for Governor Howie Hawkins and Lt. Governor Brian Jones. The previous night the Southern Brooklyn Democrats endorsed Mr. Hawkins for Governor. They are the fourth and fifth New  York City Democratic clubs to endorse Howie Hawkins in the past ten days. None of the five clubs have ever endorsed a non-Democrat for any office, until now.

The Village Independent Democrats, Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform all endorsed Hawkins the previous week.

The following is a statement from the Downtown Independent Democrats upon their endorsement of Hawkins and Jones:

Since 1971, the D.I.D. has been committed to making the NY Democratic Party a vehicle for meaningful, progressive policy and empowering our communities. We remain committed to those goals and to the Democratic Party. However, our commitments to progressive policy and empowered communities make it impossible for us to support the current Democratic nominee for governor.

Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones are aligned with the Democratic values we support and that are stated in our bylaws. Hawkins is the only candidate that has consistently called for a ban on hydrofracking. Hawkins' stances on the minimum wage, public education, single-payer healthcare, municipal taxes, clean energy and public transportation make him the only candidate New York progressives can support.

Furthermore, the Democratic nominee and incumbent governor has himself abandoned the Democratic Party by failing to support a Democratic State Senate and by forming a sham "Women's Equality Party" to draw votes away from Democrats.

"Our progressive values give us no choice but to encourage our members to vote for Hawkins on the Green Party line" said D.I.D. President Jeanne Wilcke, "We look forward to working to bring the Democratic Party back to representing those values over the next four years."

(BUFFALO, New York)—Green Party candidate for New York Governor Howie Hawkins won the gubernatorial debate held in Buffalo on Tuesday night.

Mr. Hawkins opened the debate, saying, "I am running for Governor because I want to work for the 99% of us – our state’s working-class and middle-class people. We are over-taxed, under-served, and under-paid by a state government that has been bought by the 1%’s big campaign contributions. We can do better."

"The centerpiece of my platform is aggressive action to address climate change. I will create millions of jobs by building a 100% clean energy system by 2030. And let me be clear—unlike the Governor: I will ban fracking."

 "I believe in a strong public sector, everyone's right to a useful job, a $15 minimum wage, affordable housing, quality health care, and quality public schools."

"Real solutions can't wait, and I will bring real solutions and real change for the 99%."

Answering questions with substance and going on the offensive against Cuomo for meddling with a federal fracking report, meddling with the Moreland Commission and his overall pandering to the 1% that funds his campaign at the expense of the working and middle class.

Howie Hawkins debate quotes:

Hawkins Says Agreement in Indigent Defense Lawsuit Falls Short of Needed Statewide Solution

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said that the agreement announced today in Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York falls far short of the statewide solution needed to guarantee adequate legal defense for poor New Yorkers in criminal trials.

Support for Howie Hawkins for Governor continues to come from teachers unions across New York State. In the past few days Howie Hawkins received his 5th and 6th teacher union endorsement— Nassau County's East Williston Teachers' Association and northern Westchester County's Lakeland Federation of Teachers, which includes the towns of Yorktown, Cortland, and Putnam Valley.

Hawkins' previous teacher union endorsements have come from: Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association, Valley Central Teachers Association, Buffalo Teachers Federation, The Plainview-Old Bethpage Congress of Teachers. He also has endorsements from New York Badass Teacher Association, United Opt Out, Independent Community of Educators, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Coalition for Public Education

Hawkins' opposition to Common Core and Race to the Top, as well as his platform to fully fund schools in an equitable manner has caught the attention of teachers and parents around the state who are distressed about the state of their schools due to high stakes testing, unworkable and narrow standards and a lack of funding. 

The following is the East Williston Teacher's Association statement on their endorsement of Howie Hawkins: