Buffalo News
by Aaron Besecker
October 28, 2010

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins brought his campaign to Buffalo on Thursday, urging voters to see him as an alternative to Democratic candidate Andrew M. Cuomo.

While acknowledging Cuomo's lead in the polls — "It looks like Cuomo's going to win," he said during a morning news conference — Hawkins laid out his platform, including his support for increasing taxes on the rich in order to pay for state services.

"They should be paying taxes like they used to. We've given them tax breaks on the theory that they would invest in new means of production and employment, and instead they've been speculating," he said. "They've been rearranging who owns the existing means of production. So trickle-down didn't work. We've had 30 years to prove that."

Hawkins, of Syracuse, took a leave of absence from his job unloading freight for UPS in order to run for governor. He ran a campaign for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's seat in 2006 and has also run for mayor and Common Council in Syracuse, according to his Web site.

Hawkins said he supports a single-payer health care system, and favors the State Legislature's granting more "home rule" powers to cities wishing to implement income or commuter taxes.

He also said he does not support a property tax cap.

When asked about Republican candidate and Buffalo developer Carl P. Paladino, Hawkins said he wondered who else could offend "all the Jews and all the Muslims without even talking about the Middle East."

"He talked his way right out of the campaign," Hawkins said of Paladino. "He seems to be a mean-spirited man, and every time he opened his mouth he offended another group."

Hawkins also was scheduled to appear at a protest against hydrofracking for natural gas Thursday afternoon in front of the state Department of Environmental Conservation offices on Michigan Avenue.

Colia L. Clark, the Green Party candidate in the race for the Senate seat held by Charles E. Schumer, appeared with Hawkins at the news conference in City Hall.