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Hawkins to Confront "Chicken Cuomo" on Debates
For immediate release: October 15, 2018
Hawkins to Bird-Dog “Chicken Cuomo” for Debates on Monday in NYC and Long Island
Will hold Debate with Randy Credico Cuomo at 1:30 PM
Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins will bird-dog Governor Cuomo on Monday October 15 to demand debates, including having satirist-impressionist Randy Credico standing in for Cuomo in a debate outside the Governor’s Manhattan office.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has so far not agreed to any debates with his general election opponents.
Hawkins, a retired Teamster from Syracuse who finished 3rd in the 2014 race with 5% of the vote, will confront Chicken Cuomo (in a chicken costume) about debating outside the governor’s Manhattan office at 633 3rd Avenue, Manhattan at 1:30 pm on Monday, October 15. A debate will take place with Credico standing in for Cuomo.
Read moreHawkins to Bird-Dog “Chicken Cuomo” for Debates
For immediate release: October 13, 2018
Hawkins to Bird-Dog “Chicken Cuomo” for Debates on Monday in NYC and Long Island
Will March in Hispanic Festival NYC Sunday October 14
Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins will bird-dog Governor Cuomo on Monday October 15 to demand debates.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has so far not agreed to any debates with his general election opponents.
Hawkins, a retired Teamster from Syracuse who finished 3rd in the 2014 race with 5% of the vote, will confront Chicken Cuomo (an actor in a chicken suit) about debating outside the governor’s Manhattan office at 633 3rd Avenue, Manhattan at 1:30 pm on Monday, October 15.
Hawkins and Chicken Cuomo will have another debate about debates in Rockville Center in the evening. They will debate at the corner of N. Park Ave. and Front St. in Rockville Center between 6:00 and 7:00 pm, across the street from a fundraiser for Sen. Todd Kaminsky where Cuomo is the featured speaker. The fundraiser starts at 6:30 pm.
Read moreEnding Urban Gun Violence Requires Ending Poverty and Discrimination
For immediate release: October 11, 2018
Statement in Response to Recent Shootings in Syracuse
Ending Urban Gun Violence Requires Ending Poverty and Discrimination
Community Policing and Youth Programs Will Help
by Howie Hawkins
Two youth, ages 12 and 15, were shot dead this week in Syracuse. Five people were shot right around the corner from my house three weeks ago. Their families and loved ones are in my thoughts.
It is no mystery where most of these youth shootings occur. They are endemic to high-poverty urban neighborhoods across the country, particularly in communities of color that are segregated and isolated by pervasive discrimination.
These shootings stem from the hopelessness, anger, and trauma of young people who start life deprived and often disabled physically, mentally, and emotionally by malnourishment, lead poisoning, periods of homelessness, and other readily solvable social and environmental conditions. They see the people in their neighborhoods in the same boat and hear a dismissive message from the larger society that their situation is their own fault.
Nor is it a mystery what we need to do about it. We need to end poverty and discrimination. The correlation of violence with social inequality and poverty is strong and global.
Read moreCuomo Cheats Voters by Failing to Debate
For immediate release: October 11, 2018
Hawkins Says Cuomo Cheats Voters by Failing to Debate
Calls for Mandatory Debates as part of Public Campaign Finance System
Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins said today it was past time for Cuomo to agree to debates.
“The ‘Cowardly Cuomo Campaign Plan for Buying Elections’ is: Step 1. Promise favors to special interests like real estate barons and Wall Street financial tycoons in exchange for tens of millions in campaign contributions. Step 2. Avoid reporters. Step 3. Dictate to the media the time, place, and format of one debate. Step 4. Bury his opponents’ messages with paid ads that market him like the newest Apple gadget,” said Hawkins.
In his two Gubernatorial campaigns, Cuomo accepted only one debate. In 2010, the one debate was on October 18 and in 2014 on October 22.
“It’s getting late,” Hawkins said. “Voters should be worried that Cuomo thinks he’s satisfied his one debate quota with his Democratic primary debate with Nixon.”
Read moreHawkins Lays out State Fiscal Plan: Tax the Rich
For immediate release: October 10, 2018
Hawkins: Tax the Rich to Revitalize the Public Sector
Albany – Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins wants to tax the rich to pay for his Green New Deal program for revitalizing public infrastructure and services.
Hawkins said Wednesday that New York needs to invest on the order of $44 billion a year over the next decade to build a 100% clean energy system, to repair and upgrade the state’s infrastructure after decades of under-investment, and to fully fund education from universal pre-K through tuition-free education in the SUNY and CUNY systems. Hawkins also wants the state to pick up the tab for its unfunded mandates on and restore state revenue sharing so that local governments can provide better services while cutting regressive property and sales taxes.
“New York can afford these public investments if the rich pay taxes at the rates they did in the 1970s. 40 years of conservative fiscal policies promoted by both major parties have combined tax cuts for the rich with spending cuts on public services and infrastructure. This trickle-down economics hasn’t worked. They gave more money to the rich but it didn’t trickle down to the rest of us. It just made the rich richer,” said Hawkins, a retired Teamster from Syracuse.
Read moreHawkins Testifies on Marijuana Legalization
Testimony of Howie Hawkins
Green Party Candidate for Governor
In Support of Legalization of Marijuana (Cannabis)
October 9, 2018
My name is Howie Hawkins. I am a resident of Syracuse and the Green Party nominee for Governor.
The Green Party calls for the immediate legalization of the growth, sale, and possession of cannabis under New York State law, and for the state Attorney General to defend New Yorkers against federal prosecutions of producers and users of cannabis products.
The prohibition of cannabis and the resulting “drug war” have unfairly incarcerated countless individuals and scarred communities, disproportionately Black and Latino communities. It has wastefully diverted public resources from pressing problems.
The present law decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana has failed to reduce the trade or consumption of marijuana and has continued to foster a violent drug market. It is time to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana in New York State.
We support the legalization of marijuana as outlined Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, with certain amendments. The act (S3040, A 3506) will also raise revenue for the state, portions of which will go back through government agencies and programs to communities that have been negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition.
Read moreHawkins Releases First Video Ad
For immediate release: October 8, 2018
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, has released his first video ad of this campaign.
The ad is running on facebook and youtube and has received more than ten thousand views.
The ad is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfPOaciXde0
Read moreHawkins News Conference in Cheektowaga
For immediate release: October 5, 2018
Notice of Press Conference
Where: Potts Deli & Grille, 41 S Rossler Ave, Cheektowaga, NY 14206
When: Friday, October 5, 7:00 PM
Who: Howie Hawkins for Governor; Jill Stein former Green Party Presidential candidate; Mark Dunlea, Green candidate for State Comptroller
Hawkins to Hold News Conference in Cheektowaga at 7:00 PM prior to event with Jill Stein, former Green Party Presidential candidate
Green Party Gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins is visiting Buffalo with 2016 Green Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and State Comptroller candidate Mark Dunlea.
Read moreDunlea, Hawkins Call for State Public Bank
For immediate release: October 4, 2018
The Green Party candidates for State Comptroller and Governor said it was time for New York to follow the lead of North Dakota and create a public bank.
“Unfair monetary and lending practices by the banking system are a major cause of economic problems. All too often small business and community initiatives including worker cooperatives are unable to raise the capital needed to finance their work or are forced to pay usurious rates. New York should create a state-owned bank to target investment into the new technologies and businesses of a sustainable green economy,” noted Dunlea.
The Green Party candidates, including Howie Hawkins for Governor, said the state should conduct a feasibility study on how to best set up and operate the bank.
Hawkins said, “A public bank for New York State will bypass the fees and commissions charged by big bank middlemen. The interest on loans will come back to the public treasury, not out to Wall Street. We can lower the costs of financing private businesses and public infrastructure and target our investments to meet public priorities.”
Read moreHawkins Statement on WFP Nomination of Cuomo
For immediate release: October 3, 2018
The only vote left for progressives and socialists is the Green Party ticket after the Working Families Party once again nominated Andrew Cuomo.
The WFPers who worked for Cynthia Nixon's campaign, and the progressive Democrats who voted for her, will find that it is Green Party’s platform that calls for real solutions to the problems we face, from the climate emergency to the growing concentration of wealth in the hands of the 1% that leaves many of us in the 99% struggling for living-wage jobs, affordable housing, on-time transit, good schools, and adequate health care.