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Governor candidates engage in weighty debate, ignoring Andrew Cuomo's absence
USA Today, Albany Bureau: November 1, 2018
“Shame on Andrew Cuomo for not coming here," Hawkins said during his closing statement. "Shame on the broadcast networks and cable corporations for not broadcasting this discussion."
Outside, a man in a chicken suit with a "CUOMO" nameplate splashed across his chest chit-chatted with attendees as they entered the debate....
Hawkins, making his third run for governor as the Green Party candidate, touted his "Green New Deal" plan, which includes a pledge to move the state to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
"That can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and construction, and that can be done all over the state,” he said.
Read moreLong-shot and no-shot gubernatorial candidates debate without Cuomo
Politico New York: November 1, 2018
“Shame on Andrew Cuomo for not coming here,” said the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins. “Shame on the broadcast and cable corporations and networks for not broadcasting this."
Read moreBreaking the Boundaries of 2-Party Politics in New York
The serious alternative is Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, a socialist with a long history of activism on behalf of peace, justice, labor, and environmental causes. Hawkins argues that “We had half a million people vote for the progressive Democrats [in the primary], and I’m here to tell them that I’m Plan B when we get to the general election.” Hawkins is an able contender who earned 184,419 votes—almost 5 percent of the total—when he sought the governorship in 2014. The support Hawkins won that year far exceeded the 50,000 gubernatorial votes required to secure the Greens a New York ballot line for ensuing elections, and this year he is running with lieutenant governor candidate Jia Lee, a New York City public-school teacher and labor activist. Hawkins is right when he says, “The historic role of third parties has been to force issues neglected by the major parties into public debate—issues like the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, the 8-hour day, Social Security, and ending segregation. The Green Party has increasingly been playing this role.”
Polls put Cuomo way ahead of his Republican rival—the governor’s up by 23 points in the latest Quinnipiac survey—so attempts to portray Hawkins as a potential “spoiler” are cynical at best. Hawkins is a credible contender with a good message about contemporary politics—“Demand More”—and a strong vote for him helps the Greens keep their ballot line in the nation’s fourth-most-populous state.
Read moreMiner, Hawkins and Sharpe look to sway NY's governor race
USA Today, Albany Bureau: November 1, 2018
"Our campaigns have made a difference," Hawkins said. “We put issues on the table that otherwise wouldn’t be discussed."
Hawkins is seeking to push an agenda more so than win office in November.
In his previous bids for governor, Hawkins rallied against the natural gas industry, which he believes led to the state's fracking ban in 2014.
Hawkins is hoping his campaign will have a similar impact in this year.
Read moreCut Military Budget 50%, Reinvest in NY
For immediate release: November 1, 2018
Green Party candidates call to cut military budget 50% to re-invest in NY domestic needs
Green Party candidates in New York called today for at least a 50% cut in the federal military budget in order to free up funds to invest in combatting climate change and meeting other domestic needs such as education, infrastructure and housing.
“Cutting the military budget is far more important to the well-being of New York residents than Cuomo’s attempts to enable wealthy taxpayers to continue to deduct state and local taxes. Almost two-thirds of the federal discretionary budget now goes to the military budget, which is primarily a bi-partisan deal for pork-barrel spending,” stated Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor.
The Green Party said that the defense budget has little to do with protecting the country from invasion but more to do with using dominant military might to advance the needs of multinational corporations worldwide. Tremendous savings would be possible if we adopted a cooperative approach based on mutual security and respect and worldwide improvements in quality of life. Nuclear disarmament alone would save $60 billion plus annually.
“The US should become the world’s humanitarian superpower and make friends instead of enemies. It would be a lot cheaper than policing the world on behalf of global corporations. The world would be a much safer place,” said Hawkins.
Read more#Upstate America
Politico New York Playbook: November 1, 2018
#Upstate America: Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins said the upstate-downstate conflict is “a dirty bourgeois trick.”
Climate Change, and What To Do About It, Largely Missing from Governor’s Race
Gotham Gazette: October 31, 2018
There was no discussion of climate change in the single Cuomo-Molinaro debate, which took place last week. It’s an unfortunate turn of events according to Howie Hawkins, the Green Party’s gubernatorial candidate, because New York could set the tone for the way the rest of the country reacts to the issue. “What we do counts,” Hawkins said, citing the size of New York’s economy compared to the economies of entire nations, “and we think what it does for the economy, besides what it does for the climate, will set an example that other people will want to emulate. Just like Franklin Roosevelt did some public employment when he was governor and it became a model for the jobs programs of the New Deal, I think we set an example [with a Green New Deal], we get ahead of the curve and other people are gonna want to follow our lead.”
Hawkins sees a transition to a green economy, part of what he calls a Green New Deal, as one of the many issues residents north of Westchester say have been ignored this year. “The thing about a serious climate action program is it’s a big economic stimulus, particularly upstate where you have to do a lot of energy installation,” Hawkins said, adding that the region could also become a manufacturing hub for green technology that could create jobs and be an example for the rest of the country....
The absence of climate change and what to do about it from the broader gubernatorial campaign also chills questions of whether even the proposals that Nixon pushed go far enough, or if something like the Green Party-supported New York Off Fossil Fuels Act is the right path for the state. That bill, sponsored by Assemblymember William Colton and state Senator Brad Hoylman (who also just wrote an op-ed calling on the state to pass the CCPA), both Democrats, would move New York to 100 percent clean energy by 2030, a necessary step in the face of the continuing climate crisis and what Hawkins said were insufficient proposals by Cuomo and Nixon, whose proposals both called for New York to use 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
“They want 50 percent clean electricity by 2030, but electricity is just 28 percent of the carbon footprint, it doesn't deal with transportation, industry, agriculture or buildings,” Hawkins said. You get 50 percent of that reduced, that's 14 percent really,” he said as a critique of both approaches.
Read moreIthaca.com Times Voter Guide
Howie Hawkins is a perennial candidate who has touted the value of green energy initiatives and socialism for New York.
Read moreHawkins: Stop Bomb Trains, Improve Mass Transit with Green New Deal
For immediate release: October 31, 2018
Howie Hawkins Wants NY to Release Results from Train Inspections
Calls for a Green New Deal to create living-wage jobs building clean energy system
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that New York must do more to protect state’s residents from the dangers posed by oil bomb trains in New York.
Libertarian Larry Sharpe Has Raised a Record $450,000 in New York Governor’s Race
While unprecedented for a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, Sharpe's haul understandably pales in comparison to incumbent Gov. (and overwhelming favorite) Andrew Cuomo, who has raised $13,778,685. Republican Marc Molinaro has brought in $1,914,828, Serve America Movement candidate and former Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner reported $725,060, and Green Howie Hawkins trails the field with $189,918.
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