Newsday

Howie Hawkins

Running for New York State governor on the Green ticket.

Background: Hawkins, 57, of Syracuse, was an organizing member of the Green Party when it formed in 1984. Hawkins, who works as a UPS truck unloader, is making his 16th run for political office since 1993. He has long been active in progressive causes, having protested construction of nuclear power plants in New England and South African apartheid and served as upstate coordinator for Ralph Nader’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

Issues: Hawkins said his main goal in the race is to get the 50,000 votes needed for the Green Party to win automatic ballot access for state and local offices until 2014. The party last had automatic ballot access in 2002. Should he win election, Hawkins said he would seek to eliminate the stock transfer tax rebate, institute a 50 percent tax on financial industry cash bonuses and use the new money to make higher education free in the SUNY and CUNY systems. He would also move the state toward a single-payer health care system, which he said would shift responsibility for New York counties’ share of Medicaid payments to the state. “I would be for the state taking over Medicaid and funding it rather than having an unfunded mandate that counties have to fill,” Hawkins said. “It really squeezes the county budgets.”