Ithaca Journal
by Marianne Dabir
October 3, 2010

New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins visited Ithaca as part of his election campaign Saturday, meeting voters on the Commons during the Apple Harvest Festival.

Hawkins' platform includes job creation, fair wages and community-based health care. He believes that reducing what he termed welfare for the rich while institutionalizing a single-payer health care system will make communities stronger. Hawkins said single-payer, universal health care is something that the majority of citizens want, but that hasn't been achieved because of lawmakers' lack of interest in constituent well-being.

"If you look at the polls, the percentage of people in favor of a single-payer system, or at least another kind of universal health care, has never really been below 54 percent, and in some cases that percentage has gone as high as 70 percent," Hawkins said. "In order to make reforms like this happen, we need a party that represents the people, not corporate interests."

Hawkins said that his campaign platform differs from those of Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Carl Paladino because it offers reform via a "prosperity plan" versus an "austerity plan." Hawkins said that the Green New Deal will mean taxes for the wealthy to finance public services. It will begin by guaranteeing living-wage jobs, fully funding public schools and colleges and providing quality health care for all New Yorkers.

The Green Party candidate also supports a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

"Hydrofracking ultimately leads to the contamination of water, air and soil," Hawkins said. "As we saw with the BP oil disaster this summer, 'Drill, baby, drill' inevitably means 'Spill, baby, spill.'" Hawkins wants to focus on investments and an energy policy that will ensure a rapid transition to a safe, clean energy system based on conservation, efficiency and renewable resources.

Above all, Hawkins' goal for the 2010 election is to change the political discussion statewide.

"For the people of Ithaca, I hope that they will stand up for progressive politics instead of settling for a lesser evil," Hawkins said. "I'm ready to win and to govern, but winning office comes after having an impact on the issues themselves."