2010 Campaign For Governor
In May 2010, Hawkins was nominated to run for Governor of New York State as the Green Party candidate. His campaign was also supported by the Socialist Party of New York. Hawkins' campaign focused on the financial meltdown and unemployment in the state. In an interview in May 2010, Hawkins said,
“The people of New York need someone in Albany who will stand up for Main Street and Martin Luther King Blvd., rather than someone bought and controlled by Wall Street. A million New Yorkers need a living wage jobs now. My campaign will show how we can fast track their creation.”
Hawkins sought to restore progressive income tax rates, such as those that New York had in the 1970s, and to increase the sharing of state revenues with local governments. For example, Hawkins said he favored increasing state aid to local governments by changing the annual legislated exemption from State Finance Law, which requires the sharing of 8 percent of state revenues with local governments. Additionally, like several other Green Party Governor candidates running in the US, Hawkin's platform calls for the creation of a state bank to target public investments for a sustainable green economic recovery.
Hawkins was critical of his Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo, and challenged him to participate in public forums with the other gubernatorial candidates. In a New York Daily News interview, Hawkins expressed his concerns with some of Cuomo's positions:
"... he wants to solve the state budget crisis by cutting spending such as for state workers and schools. He ignores that the root cause of the problem is not spending but the huge tax cuts for the wealthy that began when he was helping his father as Governor. Instead of spending caps, we need the wealthy and Wall Street to pay their fair share."
Hawkins supports single-payer, community-based health care and would work to end the "drug war". He also supports marriage equality and reproductive freedom, including abortion. Renewable energy and public power were central to his campaign platform, which described a Statewide Sustainability Plan for renewable energy for New York. Hawkins has also stated that he would shut down New York’s aging nuclear power plants as soon as replacement power in renewable energy comes on line.
On November 2, 2010, Hawkins received nearly 60,000 votes, allowing the Green Party of New York to be listed on the ballot for the next 4 years.
In December 2010, Hawkins was named co-chair of the newly recognized Green Party of New York.
Read more about this topic: Howie Hawkins
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