Syracuse City Eagle
June 24, 2010
by Walt Shepperd
http://cnylink.com/blogs/wshepperd/view_blog2009.php?blog_id=1277493311

Howie Hawkins didn't want to run for governor this year. As in recent years---and probably really in the back of his mind during his perennial campaigning over almost two decades---he would rather work on someone else's campaign, help build the Green Party locally, and play a significant role in landing that illusive electoral victory that he considers his party's next logical level of local political achievement. But Greens around the state told him he should run, just as local Greens, as well as a significant number of local Democrats, had urged him to run last year for the 4^th Common Council District seat. He hadn't wanted that nod either, initially, since his efforts, and those of the Working Families Party, had boosted current incumbent Democrat Tom Seals into office though a primary victory over then Democrat incumbent Mike Atkins.

But when the Republicans didn't challenge in the 4^th , and sensing a degree of Democratic discontent, Hawkins made the run, garnering a significant 41 percent of the vote in a loss to Seals. "If it wasn't for the Zombie Vote, those who pull their party's lever every time no matter what," he reflected last week, "I think I might have won." One reason Greens around the state want Hawkins to run this year is the issue of permanent ballot status. A political party in New York State must tally at least 50,000 votes every four years on the gubernatorial line to have a "permanent" status on the statewide ballot, which means party members don't have to spend an inordinate amount of time collecting petition signatures to get their nominees to appear on voting machines.

The horse race or the policy debate

One factor in hard core Greens' support for Hawkins bid for the state house is his attracting more than 50,000 votes as a Senate candidate opposing Hillary Cointon's reelection, a remarkable feat since he got no statewide exposure through televised debates. Clinton refused to participate in debates that extended invitation to Hawkins, which resulted in the League of Women Voters canceling a debate sponsorship. The conventional argument that to include Hawkins in upcoming debates would beg inclusion of all aspirants for the state ballot's top spot, may wear thin this year as---with all the cross-endorsements from the traditional third parties---Hawkins may be the only other contender qualifying for the ballot.

A very real possibility, however, is that Clinton, and any other established pol who anticipate a potential challenge from Hawkins, has viewed videotapes of his dynamic showing in the series of mayoral debates with Republican Joanie Mahoney and incumbent Democrat Matt Driscoll, in which both major party candidates ended up agreeing with his basic premises on the issue of public power. But Hawkins got the debate ball rolling last weekend, and he debated Democrat nominee Andrew Cuomo, not in person, but as the subject of a debate with announced Democrat primary challenger and Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner at the Clearwater Festival in Croton.

Not a bad guy, really

"He's not bad guy, he's not a stupid guy, he's not a lazy guy," Tyner said of Cuomo. "But I for one am sick and tired of reading in the papers what seems like Rick Lazio, George Pataki and Andrew Cuomo battling themselves to be the Herbert Hoover of the new millennium. FDR and Eleanor have to be spinning in their graves at what the Democratic Party has become."

"Democrat Andrew Cuomo, just like all of his potential Republican opponents, has explicitly ruled out higher taxes on the rich while calling for a state spending cap and a freeze on state workers' pay and benefits," Hawkins noted. "Cuomo's fiscal and economic policies, along with President Obama's freeze on all federal discretionary spending except the military, show that the Democrats have purged every last remnant of their New Deal legacy. They are taking us back to Hoover's economics, a recipe for a vicious circle of depression and debt."

Deja vu, one more time again

Meanwhile, Hawkins is reconciled to running. "I think it came in early spring," he recalled. I had been going through the motions, and getting things in place. Then the reality of how draconian the Democrats' fiscal policies are hit me. It's a bankers' agenda. With Democrats like that, who needs Republicans?"