POLITICO New York Energy, April 24, 2018

— Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins, who also attended the rally, says the Green Party wants to get off fossil fuels 20 years earlier than Nixon does, by 2030. "That's what the science says we need to avert catastrophic climate change," Hawkins told public radio's Karen Dewitt. "That's what we need to do in industrial states like New York." Read more here.

— Some activists were arrested in a planned civil disobedience action and Hawkins was among those arrested.

Capital Tonight Morning Memo, April 24, 2018

Hundreds of protestors gathered at the state Capitol yesterday to pressure Cuomo on climate change - a day after Earth Day.

Some, including Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins, were arrested inside for civil disobedience, while outside, the crowd was joined by Cuomo's Democratic primary challenger, actress and activist Cynthia Nixon.

For immediate release: April 24, 2018

Howie Hawkins called Governor Cuomo’s plastic bag ban proposal yesterday a publicity stunt designed to divert attention from thousands of climate change activists at the Capitol on Monday saying it was time for Cuomo to Walk the Talk.

Hawkins was one of 55 climate activists arrested out of the Governor’s office. Hawkins supports legislation to require NYS to go to 100% clean energy (not just electricity) by 2030; a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure (including revoking the CPV permit in Orange County); and a robust carbon tax.

Hawkins supports a statewide plastic bag ban similar to California coupled with a fee on paper bags, as Sen. Liz Krueger has already introduced. Without such a fee, consumers just change to paper bags which have their own environmental problems. Cuomo also proposes to exempt restaurants from the ban.

“Cuomo’s wastes too much time greenwashing. The real problem is that he blocked the NYC plastic bag law that the Brooklyn Green Party helped passed. And while he likes to proclaim himself as a national leader on climate change, he is flooding the state with imported fracked gas, giving billions of dollars to old nukes, and is getting only 3 to 4% of the state’s electricity from renewables,” noted Hawkins.

WRVO (NPR, SUNY Oswego), April 24, 2018

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WXXI (NPR, Rochester), April 23, 2018

WAMC (NPR, Albany), April 23, 2018

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Two of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s political opponents were at an Earth Day rally on climate change attended by hundreds at the State Capitol, where they said the governor’s energy policies are far from adequate.

Newsday (Opinion), April 20, 2018

By Lane Filler

As New York’s Working Families Party tries to figure out its general election endgame regarding its endorsement of Cynthia Nixon if she, as expected, loses the Democratic nomination to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, it has become certain there will be another left-leaning candidate on the ballot.

Howie Hawkins has again thrown his oft-tossed hat in the ring. Hawkins was the Green Party candidate for governor in 2010 and 2014, and last week he kicked off his 2018 campaign.

He’s not going to win, but he can take the moral high ground. The electorally pristine Green Party does not allow any candidate to use both its line and a major-party one. That means party leaders can’t trade off the ballot line for jobs and influence, as do the Conservative and Independence parties.

Hawkins is for real, and he has a platform. He impressed in the legendary 2010 gubernatorial six-way cage match debate that also featured Jimmy “The Rent Is Too Damn High” McMillan, and, by garnering 59,906 votes, Hawkins regained automatic ballot status for his party. Then, in 2014, Hawkins brought home 184,419 votes, a statistically significant showing that vaulted the Greens past the WFP and the Independence Party and into fourth position on the ballot.

The current conversation centers on whether Nixon, if she loses the Democratic primary, could allow a Republican to win if her WFP line pulls liberal votes away from Cuomo in November. It’s unclear how Nixon could get off the WFP line.

Meanwhile, though, Hawkins will provide a third-party liberal to vote for — one who pulled more than 5 percent support last time out. That’s a big win for liberal purists — and at least a small one for state GOP head Edward Cox, too.

Spectrum News, April 18, 2018

Green party Gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins was in the Southern Tier, sharing his plan for the state and the region.

Hawkins is no stranger to politics. This will be his third time running for Governor. At a news conference in Binghamton Wednesday, he focused on high property taxes, as well as revenue sharing between the state and cities. Hawkins talked corruption in Albany, mentioning more than 40 officials with ethics violations. He also wants to make the state health care system a single payer program working from the bottom up.

"Our approach is not this trickledown economics that Governor Cuomo has taken to a new level, which is corrupting because the campaign contributors go, they're the ones that get the favors and improve the situation for everybody from the bottom up," said Hawkins. "You put more money in working people's pockets, they spend it. It increases demand, business expands, jobs are created."

Hawkins is also calling for New York to run on 100-percent clean energy by 2030. The green party candidate will face off against the winners of the Republican and Democratic primaries.

Fox 40 WICZ TV, Binhamton, April 18, 2018

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate running for Governor of New York, visited Binghamton Wednesday.

Speaking at Columbus Park, the Green Party candidate who finished 3rd in the Gubernatorial race in 2014 says he's pushing for single-payer health care, fully-funded public schools, a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, and 100 percent clean renewable energy within 15 years.

“I will be happy to debate the Republicans on who can improve the business climate more - the Green Party or the Republican party - because they talk a good game about cutting taxes, but they talk about cutting taxes for the rich, not for the working class.”
— Howie Hawkins, Green Party Candidate for Governor of New York

Hawkins called for a Green New Deal as “the alternative to Cuomo’s corrupt corporate welfare posing as economic development.”

The Green New Deal includes transitioning to 100 percent clean energy and investing in public infrastructure and services. The objective is to achieve full employment with jobs in clean energy, mass transit, public housing, public broadband, education, and health care. 

“We put more money in working people’s pocket, they spend it, it increases demand, businesses expand, jobs are created, that’s our approach. That’s what we call the Green New Deal," said Hawkins.

During his press conference he stated that his 5 percent of the vote that year forced Cuomo to compete for progressive voters by adopting a number of Green demands, including the ban of fracking, the $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, and tuition-free public college. 

Governor Cuomo, a democrat, is seeking his third term in office as New York governor. 

For immediate release: April 18, 2018

Howie Hawkins Is Running for Governor to “Demand More”
Wants NY to Commit to 100% Clean Energy by 2030, Halt Fossil Fuels, Jobs
Urges Increase in State Revenue Sharing to Lower Property Tax

Howie Hawkins of Syracuse visited Binghamton and Ithaca today to announce that he is running for Governor to demand more progressive reforms and system change. Hawkins finished 3rd in the 2014 Gubernatorial race. His 184,419 votes moved the Green Party up to the 4th line among ballot qualified parties.

In his local stops, Hawkins emphasized the need for the state to better share revenues with local government, enabling them to better meet local needs while reducing regressive local property taxes.

Hawkins also said for Earth Day that New York should commit to 100% clean energy by 2030, stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure and enact a carbon tax. Studies show that moving to 100% clean energy would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the state. Nationwide there are already 5 times as many jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy than in energy efficiency. He wants New York to require all new cars to be fossil free by 2025, and to promote renewable heating and cooling of buildings with air-source and ground-source heat pumps.. Hawkins said he will be participating in the large climate change protests at the State Capitol on Monday April 23.

Gotham Gazette, April 18, 2018

...That makes the intervention of the RGA a potentially game-changing factor for a Republican candidate’s campaign.

“They can’t coordinate but they certainly can have a huge impact,” said New York State Republican Committee Chair Ed Cox, in a phone interview. “And they know how to win gubernatorial elections.”

As opposed to 2014, Cox sees a clear path for a Republican victory this year -- with the governor’s mounting scandals, his second-term swing to the left that has created resentment upstate, and his use of the race as a springboard for a presidential bid, which Cox said would rub voters the wrong way. There’s also the possibility, he noted, that Cuomo will lose votes in the general to third party candidates -- Nixon won the endorsement of the Working Families Party, which would allow her to be on the general election ballot even if she loses the Democratic primary; and Howie Hawkins is running for governor for a third time on the Green Party line, on which he came in third with more than 180,000 votes in 2014....