Hawkins for Auditor

(New York City) — Howie Hawkins and the Green Party are calling for clemency for nonviolent drug offenders and the legalization of drugs starting with marijuana, as part of the gubernatorial campaign's criminal justice reform platform.

 “It’s time to free the prisoners of the war on drugs,” declared Green Party governor candidate Howie Hawkins as he and the party’s attorney general candidate and Bronx-based people’s lawyer Ramon Jimenez spoke in front of Manhattan Criminal Court. “Clemency for nonviolent drug offenders and legalization are two key steps towards the necessity of turning back the New Jim Crow and ending mass incarceration.” 

“We need clemency for non violent drug offenders in New York State,” Hawkins said. “The misguided war on drugs is so fraught with racial bias that it has put a debilitating lifelong stigma on a large percentage of communities of color. That is why we need clemency, and expungement of these records now.”

Andrew Cuomo said today: "Literally on a weekly basis, you can get academics and reports saying it's totally safe and then the next week you get a report saying it's the most dangerous thing since a nuclear explosion," Cuomo said. "You know, that's one of the challenges. It's become a very highly politicized, highly emotional, highly opinionated topic and I am relying on substantive experts in my administration who don't bring any bias to work through it and give me their best advice, which I will follow. I'm not a scientist. I'm not going through the data and the research myself, but they are."

Hawkins had the following response to Cuomo's comments:

"Today, Andrew Cuomo got one thing right: he's not a scientist. Unfortunately, his own Administration recklessly edited a federal US Geological Survey study, literally removing parts of it that showed the problems and threats of fracking to New Yorkers. Then the Governor says that he is relying on those same "experts" in his Administration not to bring any bias. I've got news for Cuomo, New Yorkers aren't buying it. And New Yorkers aren't buying the notion that oil and gas industry-sponsored studies that say fracking is safe are legitimate. Their "frackademics" are bought and paid for to tout the industry as opposed to the real unbiased scientists who week after week are finding inherent problems with fracking that cannot be prevented."

Invites Cuomo to Join him to tour Fracking in Pennsylvania

(Albany NY) Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins called on Governor Cuomo today to agree to participate in three televised debates.

Hawkins, a long time advocate on a ban on fracking for natural gas, also announced that he will touring fracking sites in Pennsylvania on Thursday. He offered Cuomo, who told anti-fracking activists recently that he would take a similar tour, to join him. Republican Astorino recently announced that he will tour fracking areas with pro-fracking advocates.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, is polling at a record high for a third party progressive candidate for Governor in NY according to a new Quinnipiac Poll. 

Hawkins is polling at 9%. Cuomo continues to fall in the polls, with only a bare majority (51%) now supporting him, raising the real possibility that most voters will reject him in November. 

The poll asked Hawkins' supporters who their second choice was. A majority indicated that if Hawkins was not running, they would vote for someone other than Cuomo.

(Syracuse, NY) The Green Party gubernatorial team of Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones called today for full funding of the New York State schools.

Funding provided by the Cuomo administration is now $9 billion less than required by court orders, leading to deep cuts for the Syracuse City School District schools and all throughout the State. This has resulted in ballooning class sizes, elimination of valuable programs, and fewer teachers. The share of the state budget going to education funding has fallen to its lowest level in 65 years.

(Syracuse, NY) Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, held a news conference today outside Governor Cuomo's media event for the Women's Equality Party (WEP) ballot line to say that Cuomo's economic policies are a slap in the face to working-class women he has neglected as Governor, especially women on welfare and minimum wage workers.

Green candidate Howie Hawkins raised $71,660.43 in the July 11 through September 29 reporting period, more than in his entire 2010 campaign. Hawkins' fundraising total for the entire campaign is $126,425, three times what Hawkins raised in 2010. In this filing period, Hawkins received contributions from 240 individuals, for a total of 911 in this year's campaign cycle.

"Our average donation in this filing cycle has been $69, and the median is $40. Governor Andrew Cuomo's average donation is one hundred times greater than ours. Today's filing makes clear that Andrew Cuomo is a Governor for New York's 1% -- that's who funds his campaign. Cuomo had 39 contributors. I had 240. This shows that more people are willing to invest what little money they have in our campaign and our vision for a progressive future for New York.

Hawkins Would Reinvest in New Yorkers and Local Community

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said that the budget letter issued to state agencies by the Cuomo administration shows that he intends to continue his austerity, trickle-down economic approach to state government.

"This budget directive makes clear that Cuomo intends to keep New York the leader in income inequality," stated Hawkins.

(Syracuse, NY) Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, called today for the state Wage Board to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Hawkins noted that $15 an hour, adjusted for inflation, is less than the $2-an-hour minimum wage called for 50 years ago by A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King and others at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Adjusted for inflation, $2 would be $15.55 today.

Hawkins also told the wage board that it should join California and six other states in eliminating the tip credit that reduces the minimum wage. The Restaurant Opportunities Center United points out that tipped restaurant workers suffer from three times the poverty rate of the general population. The tipped minimum wage puts women in the compromising position of having to please clients and employers not matter how they may be mistreated since their livelihood depends on their tips. That is one of the reasons why the New York State chapter of the National Organization for Women has called for its elimination.