USA Today, Albany Bureau: November 1, 2018

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"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.

Politico New York Playbook: November 1, 2018

#Upstate America: Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins said the upstate-downstate conflict is “a dirty bourgeois trick.”

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.

Ithaca.com: October 31, 2018 

Howie Hawkins is a perennial candidate who has touted the value of green energy initiatives and socialism for New York.

Reason: October 31, 2018

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.

am New York: October 30, 2018

An interview with the Green Party candidate for governor. Photo Credit: Getty Images / Audrey C. Tiernan-Pool

By Mark Chiusano

Howie Hawkins had a sort of thousand-yard stare last week during an interview about his third run as the Green Party candidate for governor of New York.

The stare came as he listed the issues he believes he alone carries into the general election: full public campaign financing. Expanded rent control. A big boost in public housing, built to a “human scale.” A Green New Deal featuring clean jobs and infrastructure. One hundred percent clean energy in the state by 2030.

The thousand-yard stare might come from the fact that Hawkins is a minor party candidate in Democrat-friendly New York who hopes to get 5 percent “plus” of the vote.

But it was hard to shake the feeling that the stare also came from the fact that Hawkins is brimming with ideas he thinks would make New York better, and he knows that many will have to wait for some future election.

NY State of Politics: October 30, 2018

By Nick Reisman

Green Party candidate for governor Howie Hawkins on Tuesday released an upstate-centric tax proposal that would repeal the limit local property tax increases.

The tax cap, instead, would be replaced with restoring state revenue sharing with local governments.

“Upstate New York suffers from the highest property taxes in the country and the Governor’s tax cap has been just a sound-bite gimmick that has done nothing to lower them,” Hawkins said in a statement. “The state government has a much broader base than the sales and property tax to finance government operations. Restoring revenue sharing would offset the cost of unfunded mandates and enable local governments to reduce local taxes while making needed investments in services and infrastructure.”

The proposal was unveiled with Mark Dunlea, the Green Party’s candidate for state comptroller, who has been pushing for a divestment of the state pension fund from fossil fuel interests.

“The state comptroller has failed to take the easy step of protecting our health and tax dollars by divesting the state pension fund from the $6 to $11 billion. It has invested in fossil fuels,” Dunlea said. “We need to go much further, immediately halting all new fossil fuel infrastructure and moving to 100% clean energy by 2030, including enacting a state carbon tax to make polluters pay for the damage they have caused.”

WIBX 950AM (Utica): October 30, 2018

The Green Party candidates for Governor and Comptroller made their last campaign stop in Utica before Election Day today.

Both Howie Hawkins and Mark Dunlea want to repeal the state's two-percent cap on local property taxes and replace it with a restoration of state revenue sharing with local governments.

City Limits: October 30, 2018

Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College, says that with widespread agreement “that the system is broken and needs to be reformed,” she could see some of the ideas being floated in the campaign informing new policies around bail, even if the candidates pushing those ideas don’t end up winning....

Hawkins has called for abolishing bail altogether for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, and he supports passage of “Kalief’s Law” that would allow judges to set the “trial clock” deadlines to ensure speedy trials....

Hawkins would ban solitary confinement. He would also “ban the box,“ ending the practice of employers and public colleges such as SUNY using criminal history to disqualify applicants before an offer is made. He calls for providing educational opportunities for the incarcerated and would include prisoners in his wider plan to provide free tuition at SUNY, CUNY and community colleges....

Hawkins would legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis, as well as instruct the attorney general to defend cannabis producers and consumers prosecuted by the federal government.

He would appoint a commission to recommend policies that would address the impact of the war on drugs and mass incarceration, particularly on communities of color, as well as decriminalize hard drugs by treating low-level possession and consumption as violations, the repercussions of which would include referring people to treatment. Drug trafficking would remain criminal, but he says he would free drug prisoners....

WUTQ FM 100.7, Utica: October 30, 2018

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Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins for NY Governor and Mark Dunlea for NY Comptroller explain why they should be considered as an option for voters and discuss their agenda, including Single Payer Healthcare and Reducing Taxes.