http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/501999/green-party-co-founder-running-for-governor/?ap=1&MP4

Friday, April 16, 2010

By: Bill Carey

There is another candidate in the race for New York Governor. But this contender has a different outlook on the race ahead. Our Bill Carey says the Syracuse man is no stranger to elections or defeat.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It's an odd place to serve as headquarters for a statewide campaign. But this small storefront has served Howie Hawkins well over the years as he's launched campaigns for offices ranging from Syracuse Common councilor and mayor to Congress and even the U.S. Senate. And he plans to be busy again this year, running for Governor.

"The democrats have the power, at the national level and the state level, and they're not looking out after the working people and the middle class. So we need an alternative," said Hawkins.

Can he win? No. But Hawkins, one of the founders of the National Green Party, defines victory in a different way than most candidates.

"If we can move the debate. If we can get the political system to respond to the issues we're raising. If we can speak for people that don't have a voice, we're making a difference," Hawkins said.

When Hawkins ran for mayor in 2005, he was talking about two key issues. One was municipal power. That idea caught on and the mayor ended up studying the issue. Then, he was talking about a personal income tax. Five years later and faced with a crushing deficit, the city is now close to embracing that idea. One of Hawkins' opponents in that race is now Onondaga County's Executive. Joanie Mahoney turns out to be a fan of the perennial third party contender.

"He takes complex issues and breaks them down in a way that he earned a lot of support from people in the mayor's race and I know he continues to earn that support, year after year," Mahoney said.

Hawkins' biggest challenge is familiar -- getting media attention. He found his race for Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2006 especially frustrating.

"The republican was weak so the media wasn't covering it until he claimed, according to the Daily News, that she'd had plastic surgery. And then the debate became, did she or didn't she have plastic surgery and did he or didn't he say that? And, I'm over here saying, wait a minute, there are life and death issues here," Hawkins said.

Hawkins has a day job, unloading trucks at a UPS facility overnights. The campaign ahead promises plenty of lost sleep, all the time knowing he cannot not prevail.

"It's not even David versus Goliath. It's the mosquito that David and Goliath are trying to swat away," said Hawkins.

There is a magic number for Hawkins and that number is 50,000. If he can gain that many votes statewide in the race for governor, the Green Party wins a permanent ballot spot. That would make it easier for the party to have candidates run in thousands of local contests in the future.