For immediate release: July 21, 2018

Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins for Governor and Mark Dunlea for State Comptroller will head up a Green Party contingent in the ZeroHour youth climate change rally and march in NYC on Saturday July 21 which will kick off at 11:00 AM at Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

The Green Party contingent will meet at 10:30 AM at 64th St and West Central Park.

The Green Party has long called for a Green New Deal which supports full employment through a variety of programs, including transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2030 and halting all new fossil fuel infrastructure. The Greens support a state carbon tax and a goal of 100% of all new vehicles being zero emission by 2025.

Mark Dunlea, the Green candidate for Comptroller, is calling for the state pension fund to be divested from fossil fuels, as NYC voted earlier this year to do.

Politico New York Energy, July 20, 2018

DUNLEA’S GREEN PITCH — POLITICO's Marie J. French: If Comptroller Tom DiNapoli won't rid the state's pension fund of investments in fossil fuel companies, then it's time for a new comptroller, says Mark Dunlea. Dunlea, a longtime environmental activist, has launched a quixotic Green Party campaign to unseat DiNapoli. Dunlea faces ridiculously long odds — the Green Party operates on the state's political margins, while DiNapoli was the only unopposed incumbent at the state's Democratic convention and won reelection in 2014 with 60 percent of the vote. And it's not as though Dunlea sees DiNapol as an archenemy. "We think Tom's a good guy," he said. Even still, Dunlea is moving forward with his unlikely campaign, focusing on a key issue for environmentalists: divestment. There's a lot of money at stake — the comptroller has fiduciary responsibility for $209 billion in state pension funds, which pay for public employee retirement benefits. The comptroller's decisions about investment strategy are critical in ensuring that the state will have money to cover the pension costs for thousands of employees. Investing in fossil fuel companies "is morally wrong, it's destroying the planet and its a financial risk," Dunlea said at a press event in Albany last week. It was one of several appearances he's made around the state with Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins. Read more here.

For immediate release: July 19, 2018

WSYR News Radio (Syracuse), July 19, 2018

Green Party Candidate Howie Hawkins is calling for statewide action to address the exposure of children to lead contamination. Syracuse is the child lead poisoning capital of the nation. 40% of Syracuse children had blood lead levels between 5 and 10 micrograms per deciliter, while 16% had levels exceeding 10 micrograms per deciliter. Hawkins talked about the issue on NewsRadio 570 WSYR. Listen to the podcast.

WAER (NPR, Syracuse University), July 19, 2018

Audio

Green party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins called on the state Wednesday to get tougher when it comes to preventing lead poisoning in children.

Hawkins said it is a crime that so many children across New York State have elevated lead levels in their blood. He proposed five steps to deal with what he called a crisis, including a state law that would require that all rental units have lead-safe certification, before a family moves in.

Real Left Politics with Stewart Alexander, July 18, 2018

Audio

Stewart Alexander talks with Howie Hawkins about his run for governor of New York. Part 2. Part 1 aired on July 11, 2018.

WAER (NPR, SUNY Oswego), July 18, 2018

Green Party candidate for governor Howie Hawkins stands in front of Blodgett Academy to announce his plan to combat lead and lead poisoning. Joining him is supporter Ursula Rozum.

Green Party Candidate for Governor Howie Hawkins says Syracuse is poisoning its children, and he has a plan to stop it.  A 2016 study by The Journal of Pediatrics found that, in terms of percentage, Syracuse’s youth had the highest lead levels in the nation between 2009 and 2015.   Hawkins is making it a campaign issue.

“Forty percent of Syracuse children have lead levels above the federal standard of five micrograms per deciliter in their blood tests,” Hawkins said. “Forty percent of our children are being impacted by lead which causes intellectual flow development, problems with motor skills, memory, and leads to behavioral problems.”

New York Times, July 18, 2018

The university also surveyed a wider sample of nearly 1,000 voters, looking at a possible six-way general election and including candidates like a former Syracuse mayor, Stephanie Miner, who is running as an independent; the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins; and a Libertarian, Larry Sharpe.

In that situation, Mr. Cuomo beats Marcus J. Molinaro, the Republican candidate for governor, by 20 points, 43 to 23 percent. Ms. Nixon, who could run on the line of a third party, the Working Families Party, which endorsed her in April, receives 13 percent, with Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Hawkins and Ms. Miner all polling in the low single digits. In a two-way race, Mr. Cuomo leads Mr. Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, by a wider margin, with 57 percent favoring the governor to Mr. Molinaro’s 31 percent.

Syracuse Post-Standard, July 18, 2018

...The bulk of Miner's contributions came from three leaders of the Serve America Movement, an upstart political party backing her run. Charles Wall, a former lawyer for Philip Morris; Michael Willner, a software CEO; and Scott Muller, a former lawyer for the CIA, each gave $44,000 to the campaign....

Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, who is also from Syracuse, raised more than $24,000 between January and July. He has about $17,000 available to spend....