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Hawkins to Cuomo: Stop Pay-to-Play Campaign Donations
For Immediate Release: June 28, 2018
Hawkins Calls on Cuomo to Stop Taking “Pay to Play” Campaign Donations
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, called today for the Governor “to stop taking campaign donations from those seeking contracts from the state – which he said he would do in 2016 after the Buffalo Billion bid rigging scandal first broke. The man is addicted to extracting as much money from donors as possible and continues to shake down those doing business with the state despite however many of his staff and state legislators are convicted for political corruption. It is time for an intervention to protect taxpayers.”
Cuomo’s broken promises with respect to stop taking “Pay to Play” donations are laid out in an article in the Albany Times Union. Pay to Play refers to companies and individuals seeking to do business with the state making campaign contributions.
“Cuomo is the kingpin of the cesspool of political corruption in Albany. He continues to rake in dollars while blaming inaction by the state legislature for his failures to pass even modest ethics reform. But he has spent eight years making sure that the legislature is dysfunctional, continuously helping to prop up the Senate Republicans,” noted Hawkins.
Read moreHawkins Denounces Muslim Ban, NY Should Be Sanctuary State
For immediate release: June 27, 2017
Will Join the NYC Protest on June 30 To Support Immigration, Reunification of Families
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, denounced Tuesday’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding the so-called Muslim Ban “as yet another action of a rogue Supreme Court that puts reactionary political beliefs ahead of the facts and fundamental constitutional rights.”
Hawkins said the decision grows out of decades of racist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic policies fueled by both major parties, growing out of 9/11, the so-called War on Terror and white nationalist opposition to immigration.
Hawkins, who has long campaigned to turn New York into a “Sanctuary State” for immigrants, said that “providing a safe harbor for refugees is the morally right thing to do, and that in order to enact any reasonable immigration policy we need to get the racist leadership of Trump and Sessions out of office.” Hawkins noted that immigration has always enriched New York’s economy.
Read moreGreens on the PSC
For immediate release: June 25, 2018
Hawkins Calls for a Green to be Appointed to the Public Service Commission
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that a Green Party member should be appointed to fill the vacancy in the Public Service Commission.
By state law, no more than 3 members of any one party can be appointed to the 5-person Public Service Commission, which oversees the electric industry in New York. The legislature recently adjourned without the Governor nominating anyone to fill the present vacancy. The existing term of a second member also expired in February.
“We need a strong consumer renewable energy advocate on the PSC to stand up to the Governor and utility companies. As we heard in the recent Percoco corruption trial, the PSC has become little more than a rubber stamp for Cuomo rather than an independent body looking out for the well-being of the state’s ratepayers. Thus we get a PSC that approves a $7.6 billion bailout for 3 upstate nuclear power facilities and which blocks the development of community solar farms by prematurely changing the net metering rules,” said Hawkins.
Read moreMedia Greenout
by Howie Hawkins
I need your help to bust through the media "greenout." Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or to the producer of a news or public affairs broadcast you watch urging them to cover the Green campaign.
You can pick a policy you like that I am advocating and say Howie Hawkins deserves coverage for it. See my platform for policies.
Or you can say you are a progressive trying to make up your mind between Andrew Cuomo, Cynthia Nixon, and Howie Hawkins, but you need more coverage of Hawkins to do it.
Or take another approach. The point is to let the media know people want coverage of the Green campaign.
You can also help by becoming a social media activist. If the corporate media won’t cover us, we will have to get the word out by social media. Share and like our facebook posts to your networks, and retweet (not just like) our tweets.
My campaign puts out media releases, op-eds, facebook posts, and tweets on the issues we face on a daily basis. Check out the news blog on my website.
The media only promotes the candidates of the two corporate parties. They admit they focus more on “the horse race” than the issues. The horse race is driven by campaign contributions. And they focus what they can sell as entertainment. The media covered Trump’s campaign incessantly as a new reality TV show in order to boost their ratings – and advertising revenue. It propelled Trump to the White House.
Now the media is starstruck with actress Cynthia Nixon. As she challenges Gov. Cuomo in the Democratic primary with Working Families Party backing, the media give regular coverage to self-styled “progressive” Democrats, which includes Cuomo as well as Nixon, Bill DeBlasio, Zephyr Teachout, and the rest of the WFP-endorsed Democrats.
The media defines these Democrats as “the left” and ignores the Greens ...
- even though the Green Party got more votes for governor in 2014 than Cuomo got on the Working Families Party line.
- even though Nixon joined Cuomo to support Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
- even though a Nixon spokesperson did not answer a question about whether Nixon voted for Cuomo in 2014.
- even though the Greens democratic eco-socialist positions are distinctly to the left of the socially-liberal but economically-conservative “progressive” Democrats.
This media framework is reflected in the broader progressive movement, which seems to be scared so stupid by Trump that they can’t see the damage that so-called “progressive” Democratic leaders are doing right before their eyes.
Read moreNew Teacher Evaluation Bill is all Smoke and Mirrors
by Jia Lee
Contrary to what its proponents claim, the New York bill on state assessments and teacher evaluations (A10475/S8301) does not eliminate using student scores on standardized tests to evaluate teachers. It just makes high-stakes testing for teacher evaluations subject to collective bargaining, while keeping the ranking of schools by test scores in place, a practice that is used to justify public school closures and privatizations as charter schools. The bill has passed the Assembly and is now in committee in the state Senate.
Read moreMay Day is Red and Green
by Howie Hawkins
May Day, or International Workers Day, is celebrated with marches and rallies every May 1 to lift up the working people and their demands for freedom, equality, and justice. That is the Red tradition of May Day. But there is also an older Green tradition that cultures the world over celebrate as Spring arrives in temperate and arctic climates and the wet season arrives in tropical climates. This Green tradition of May Day celebrates all that is free and life-giving on the green Earth that is our common wealth and heritage. These Red and Green May Day traditions are complementary.
Read moreThe Last Resort: Civil Disobedience for Safe Energy
By Howie Hawkins
On Monday, April 23, I am once again risking arrest as a nonviolent civil disobedient to protect the climate with safe energy.
The march, rally, and civil disobedience at the state capital in Albany is called “Cuomo: Walk the Talk on Climate!” Our three demands are stop all fracked-gas infrastructure projects, move to 100% clean renewable energy, and make corporate polluters pay.
Read moreBusiness owner Matt Funiciello answers Business Council on NY Health Act
Unpublished letter to the editor of the Albany Times Union, February 8, 2018
Matt Funiciello is the owner of the Rock Hill Bakehouse in Glens Falls, New York
To the Editor:
As an employer of 35 people, I am displeased Business Council of NYS President, Heather Briccetti, opposes the Single-Payer NY Health Act (Letter: Single-Payer system too cost prohibitive for state,” Feb. 6).
The original letter penned by my friend, Howie Hawkins (which Briccetti responded to), cited his actual source, which was an analysis by economist Gerald Friedman (Opinion on the web: "Single-Payer would save N.Y. billions," Jan. 30).
The Business Council's response makes assertions without citing sources. But it is quite clear from the numbers chosen that they come from Avik Roy, a conservative policy analyst whose paper on the NY Health Act concludes that the state should defer to Congress on health care policy. The health care cost crisis in New York will just get worse if our answer is to wait for action from our do-nothing Congress.
Let me respond to the four most false or misleading assertions made by the Business Council in this letter.
Read more