UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - If you haven't heard of him before, Howie Hawkins is not only running on the Green Party ticket, he actually co-founded the Green Party back in 1984.
Hawkins, who lives in Syracuse, made a campaign stop at the State Office Building in Utica Friday morning.
His platform is to overhaul the state, and in doing so, put all New Yorkers back to work.
Hawkins graduated from the Ivy League school, Dartmouth. He has been in business for decades, but for the past eleven years, has been a truck unloader for UPS. He has been on leave from UPS since Labor Day and will remain on leave until after election day.
Hawkins has previously run for Syracuse mayor, the U.S. Senate and for Congress.
This year, Hawkins is running for governor, and says ever since the one and only gubernatorial debate ten days ago, he and his Green Party have been even more well-received during his campaign stops across the entire state, than those before the debate.
"One debate was better than none," Hawkins said. "And people who heard the debate or saw the debate really helped us. The reviews focused on the characters up there. It was like a review of American Idol or The Gong Show or something. So, they really didn't get the picture, but I think the people that saw me, saw we had a serious program, a practical program, and I know we got a lot more support for it. Although, I would have liked us to have a couple more debates."
If elected, Hawkins would like to see a single-payer, community-based health service where everyone's healthcare is paid for.
He wants to ban corporate-owned farms, thus supporting family farms with price supports, credit, and tax relief.
Hawkins proposes a New York social security system to supplement federal social security.
He wants to end drug prohibition. In essence, legalize, regulate, and tax drugs, starting with marijuana.
Also, Hawkins would like to see free public education from pre-school through graduate school.
He has called for a ban on hydrofracking for natural gas, and he supports marriage equality.
The Green Party line is the last line on the ballot this year, and if Hawkins can get 50,000 votes on Tuesday, the Green Party will once again get a candidate on the gubernatorial ballot in four more years.
Hawkins believes he can get more than 200,000 votes, and that, he says would get the Green Party, the 3rd line on that next gubernatorial ballot come 2014.
