Green Party candidate for Governor, Howie Hawkins, has launched a bid to collect the 15,000 signatures necessary to appear on the electoral ballot this fall. Supporters from all corners of the State hit the pavement this week in a race against the clock to sign up voters. The entire registration must be completed in five weeks time and must include voters in at least half of the congressional districts in the state.

The Hawkins campaign has taken a grassroots approach to collecting signatures by posting the form and an instructional video on their website. In the video, Hawkins encourages volunteers to present the simple message to voters of “Can you help me out with a signature?” The campaign aims to collect close to 30,000 signatures in order to ensure that Hawkins will qualify even if the mainstream parties challenge the signatures.

The pool of candidates searching for signatures has expanded dramatically. Carl Paladino, a Tea Party supported Republican, was scorned by his party, but is reportedly making a bid as an independent.

More directly relevant to the Hawkins campaign was New York City Councilman Charles Barron’s announcement of his intention to run for Governor as part of his new Freedom Party. Barron described the party as “black-led” and viewed its creation as a means to protest the all-white ticket being presented by the Democrats. Hawkins welcomed the announcement calling it “one more step in creating a multi-party democracy in New York.”

For his part, Hawkins has continued to pound away at the bread-and-butter economic issues. He described the state’s looming fiscal deficit as being “manufactured” by politicians in Albany who lowered taxes on the highest wage earners. Instead of stimulating the economy, “the rich took their tax cut money and speculated in paper assets.” As a result, revenue from items such as the Stock Transfer Tax was rebated back to the very same brokerage firms it was collected from.

Regarding education, Hawkins spoke against plans being proposed in Rochester and Syracuse to follow the model of New York City and adopt mayor control of schools. He described this as a demand of the “corporate world” that views “democratic bodies as an obstacle to their plans to siphon public revenues to their private coffers.” Hawkins’ platform calls for “free public education from pre-school through graduate school,” with greater community, teacher and parent involvement in decision-making.

So, the Hawkins campaign hits streets throughout New York State this week in an attempt to put a left-wing choice before the voters of New York. Whether you support the kinds of changes Hawkins’ proposes or even if you just think that choice is a good part of democracy, you might sign on the dotted line. And, if you are moved by spirit of building a better New York State for working people, you are just one website, a short video and a print button away from joining the petition drive.

Billy Wharton is the editor of the Socialist WebZine, a writer and activist whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the NYC Indypendent, Spectrezine and the Monthly Review Zine. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it